A Memory Never Erased
by Sailor Crystal
Summary: Aeris and Sephiroth aren't the only Anicents left in the world. When this young girl is found, she's quickly entangled with the affairs of the others. Now she must help save the Planet but what's the price she pays in doing so? COMPLETED
1. Prolouge

Ryoko: This is a "What If" story. What if there was another Ancient, but this one was living in the City of the Ancients? What if this one was the one who had the Holy materia, but she didn't know what it was? What if this Ancient holds the key to saving Aeris?  
  
Aeris: This is going to be good.  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: We don't own any of the Final Fantasy Seven chars, but we do own Silent Moon, Pink14, and Elora.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
A girl opens her cat-like gold eyes. She looks around and sighs.  
  
"Where are those two?" She asks.  
  
Her voice sounds like a sweet melody, foreign to anyone, but herself and her two friends. She stands up and her blue dress falls to her knees.  
  
"Silent! Pink! Come on!"  
  
Footsteps hitting the pillars alerted her to her two friends coming. A few minutes later two creatures appeared in front of her. One was a panther with a collar around its neck. Embeddened in the middle of the collar was a white crystal. The other was a pink wolf. Across her right eye ran a scar, leaving her half blind. On her left front leg was the Roman numeral for 14 and around her head is a headband with feathers sticking out of it.  
  
"You two now better then that."  
  
The wolf grins and the girl gets on her back. The two jump from pillar to pillar and run up the stairs. They come out into the sunlight and the girl closes her eyes.  
  
"You went too fast."  
  
The panther grins and both walk over to another part. The girl sighs and gets off the wolf's back.  
  
"I wish it wasn't so lonely here. The city has gotten to be so quiet now."  
  
"Maybe you should go to the temple." A voice suggests.  
  
"No. I was there earlier. All's it showed me was you two playing around in the water."  
  
Both the cat and wolf grin. The girl smiles back and takes her black, tinted red hair out of its braid. She yawns and crawls over to a bed.  
  
"I'm going to sleep."  
  
"Night." Two voices say in unison.  
  
The girl falls asleep about five minutes later. Little did she know, the adventure for her life was going to happen the next day. 


	2. Part One

Ryoko: We must be getting a lot of good ideas. *Aeris laughs*  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: We don't own the places or chars from FF7. Only Silent Moon, Pink14, and Elora belong to us.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
"Elora, wake up."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
Elora moans as she stretches. It was the middle of the night, judging by how dark the city looked and the positioning of the moon.  
  
"People are in the city."  
  
Elora sits up in her bed, instantly awake. Nobody was supposed to be in the city, unless it was another Ancient.  
  
"Is it another Ancient?"  
  
The wolf speaks up.  
  
"It's a group of people. One of them is my brother, so yes."  
  
Elora gets up, grabs a staff and runs out of the building she's in. The panther and wolf follow after her.  
  
"Pink, take me to them. Silent, go to the alter."  
  
Both the wolf and cat nod and Elora gets out the wolf's back. The pink wolf takes off running, using the shortcuts only she, the panther, and Elora knew about.  
  
"How long have they been here?"  
  
"Shortly after you fell asleep. The leader, a male blonde with blue eyes looked depressed so we didn't wake you. Now he's off by himself."  
  
"Pink. I should wring your neck."  
  
Pink grins.  
  
"I'll be sure to tell your brother about this."  
  
Elora laughs as Pink growls.  
  
"Does he even remember you, Pink14?"  
  
"Highly doubt it." The wolf, Pink14, answers.  
  
Both lapse into silence and Pink14 slows to a walk. Elora lifts her head up and notices another human.  
  
"That's the leader."  
  
"He looks depressed just with walking."  
  
"Want to scare him?"  
  
Elora smiles', not knowing how serious the problem was that was going on.  
  
"Nan, let's follow him."  
  
The wolf continues following the blonde as he enters the building. Elora narrows her eyes.  
  
"He's going to the alter."  
  
Pink14 instantly knows what to do. She exits the building and runs over to another building. She puts a paw onto a wall and it opens. She runs through it and Elora lifts her head up.  
  
"Alter. Human. Other humans. One wolf. Who is that?" She asks looking at the brown haired woman on the Alter.  
  
"That's the other Ancient. From what I and Silent Moon picked up during the night, her name is Aeris and she ran away from them while looking for a man by the name of Sephiroth."  
  
Elora shudders and watches. The blonde haired man walks up to Aeris and looks as if he's struggling to restrain himself from attacking her. Elora gives Pink14 a small pat and the wolf jumps forward. She lands on the nearest pillar and growls loudly. The other humans turn around and Elora gets off the wolf's back. Everybody, even the wolf looks shocked.  
  
"Take it he doesn't remember you." Elora mumbles under her breath.  
  
Pink14 giggles under her breath also. Elora ignores everyone's gazes as a panther runs up beside her, the gem in the middle glowing slightly.  
  
"We got trouble."  
  
"Yea, so I see."  
  
"No, really. Look!"  
  
Elora lifts her head up and runs forward. She runs onto the Alter and puts her staff up.  
  
"Reflect!"  
  
A yellow shaped dome goes over Elora and Aeris. The sword bounces off the barrier and the owner growls and floats back a few feet. The barrier drops and both Elora and Aeris look at the owner of the sword. Just as Aeris gasps, both the cat and wolf run forward.  
  
"Who are you?" Elora demands.  
  
The man smirks.  
  
"My name is Sephiorth. And who are you?"  
  
"None of your business."  
  
Spehiorth's piercing gaze goes shifts to Silent Moon's collar and he smirks again. Elora lets out a growl.  
  
"I will be leaving now."  
  
He disappears and Elora collapses to the floor. She had a big feeling it was not over, and his gaze when his eyes feel on the middle of Silent Moon's collar was full of pure evil. Elora lets out a yelp as she gets picked up by the back of the neck. It felt like steel claws. She turns her head to look into the gaze of one of the humans from before. This one was the one who was mostly hidden, expect for his face. His eyes were garnet red and bore into her.  
  
"Let her go." Silent growls out.  
  
The man turns towards her and glares at her. Silent Moon does not back down.  
  
"Let me go! I'm not here to hurt anybody. I just saved one of your people!"  
  
"Let her go, Vincent." Comes the shaky voice of Aeris.  
  
The man lets go and Elora lands with a thud. She grumbles under her breath and rubs her lower back.  
  
"Thankz."  
  
"Now who are you?" Aeris asks.  
  
"Can we please get out of here first?" Yuffie asks.  
  
Everybody nods and Elora gets on Silent's back. Both the panther and wolf run off in a different direction. Elora is rubbing the back of her neck.  
  
"Ow. That's a first. Getting hurt by steel. When was the last time somebody attacked me with that?"  
  
"Never." Both creatures answer.  
  
Elora grins and Silent stops. Pink gets in front of the cat as she sees the group of humans.  
  
"Their fast."  
  
"Hush!"  
  
The humans look at Elora and the young Ancient gazes back.  
  
[pic] 


	3. Part Two

Ryoko: Please. Don't review us saying we need to work on our spelling.  
  
Aeris: As long as you understand what we're trying to say, then continues on with the story.  
  
Ryoko: If you REALLY can't understand it. E-mail us.  
  
Aeris: It's on our profile.  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: We don't own the chars, or places or FF7. We only own Elora, Silent Moon and Pink14.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
About ten minutes later, found Elora, Silent Moon, Pink14, the other humans, and wolf in one of the buildings in the city. Elora's kneeling nervously on the floor. The place was small, but for now it would work.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"My name is Elora Day."  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"I live here."  
  
Everybody's eyes widen and Elora's nervousness grew. Somehow she had a feeling nobody knew life could exist here in the city.  
  
"You're an Ancient?" Aeris speaks up.  
  
Elora shifts her gaze over to the brown haired girl and nods. Aeris smiles and comes over. She takes Elora's arm and leads her outside. Elora looks confused until Aeris smiles again.  
  
"My name is Aeris Gainsborough. I had a feeling you were an Ancient."  
  
"You mean...?" Elora asked.  
  
Despite what the wolf had told her, Elora hadn't believed her. Now she did as Aeris nods. Elora throws her arms around the older girl's waist. Aeris smiles and hugs the girl back.  
  
"How long have you been living here?" Aeris asks.  
  
"All my life. This place was once filled with people, but somehow they all died out. Eventually it was only my family and I think your family. What was your mother's name?"  
  
"Her name was Ifalna."  
  
Elora nods.  
  
"Yes, it was your family. Eventually they left and my family raised me. When I was four, my father died. When I was six, my mother died. Both in the temple."  
  
"How old are you?"  
  
"Thirteen."  
  
Aeris' emerald eyes flash and Elora walks off to another part of the city. Aeris follows her and they both walk through the deserted city.  
  
"I never thanked you for saving me."  
  
Elora smiles as she looks up to Aeris.  
  
"I couldn't let an innocent woman such as you get killed."  
  
Aeris blushes and Elora laughs. Her voice went to sounding like a melody, to a chime-like laugh. Aeris smiles and takes the girls hand.  
  
"Let's go back to the others."  
  
Elora shakes her head.  
  
"Your friends don't trust me. Only the wolf does because he senses something about Pink14."  
  
Aeris turns to look at her, shock shown on her face. Elora holds up her staff and takes a yellow orb out near the handle for her hands. She holds it out and Aeris looks at it.  
  
"I've developed this materia past its usual sensing abilities. I had to if I wanted to know if people were good inside or not."  
  
Aeris nods and Elora puts the orb back into its place.  
  
"You little sneak."  
  
Elora laughs again and Aeris ruffles the girls' hair. Part of it fall into her face and Aeris laughs as Elora growls. Both girls walk back to the building. Unknown to them, in the darkness, a figure with silver hair is watching. His piercing green eyes narrow as he sets his sights on Elora. He smirks and disappears, while with Aeris, Elora suddenly collapses. Aeris catches her as she falls and shakes the young girl as she falls unconscious.  
  
"Elora! Elora, wake up!"  
  
When she got no answer, Aeris began to worry. She picks Elora up and runs the rest of the way to the building. Pink14 and Silent Moon are outside waiting for her.  
  
"Elora! What happened?" Pink cries as she runs over.  
  
"I'm not sure. One minute she was talking and laughing. And the next she collapsed and was unconscious."  
  
Silent's face turns into one of thinking and Aeris bends down. Pink lifts her nose us and rubs it against Elora. The girl responds with a low moan. Pink steps back and Aeris stands up.  
  
"Come in. The sun's setting and it gets really cold here at night."  
  
Neither Aeris, nor Silent had noticed how fast the day had gone by. Silent goes over to the door and opens the door with her nose. Aeris walks in and the first person next to her was Yuffie. The young ninja girl looks Elora over.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Elora's wolf friend asked the same thing. She collapsed and passed out as soon as I caught her."  
  
Pink14 twitches her tail and lays down beside the chair, occupied by Barret. Aeris goes into another room and lays Elora down on the bed. Elora shifts and groans in her sleep. Aeris frowns and turns her head as a girl with brown hair walks in. She closes the door and walks over beside Aeris.  
  
"What do you think is wrong?" She asks softly.  
  
Aeris shrugs and the girl puts a hand on Elora's forehead. She instantly pulls it away and frowns.  
  
"She's burning up. Why didn't she go see a doctor in the Bone Village?"  
  
Aeris remembered the village. It was an excavation site that had to go to, to get a harp so she could go through the Sleeping Forest.  
  
"Tifa, she's been living here all her life. The only other place she's been is the temple."  
  
The girl instantly calms down and smiles softly.  
  
"Poor thing. I hope she feels better soon."  
  
Aeris nods in silent agreement. In the other room, a certain blonde haired male narrows his eyes as a golden-eyed panther told of that was going on in the bedroom. 


	4. Part Three

*As both girls read the reviews, Aeris scowls* Aeris: Our spelling is on the defensive.  
  
*Ryoko scuffs loudly* Ryoko: To our reviews, we are very sorry we don't know how to spell, but to say we haven't even played the game is an insult. We've played it, beaten it, and to misspell ONE word from it.  
  
Aeris: Doesn't mean you need to critics us for it.  
  
Disclaimer: We don't own any of the chars or places from FF7, but we do own Elora, Silent Moon, and Pink14.  
  
A/N: Aeris: And the reason why Elora has pets is because one of them is a sister to one of the chars from the game. (Made up of course.)  
  
Ryoko: This is a "What If" story. So please, lay off.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
It took two full days for Elora to wake up. In the meantime, Silent Moon and Pink14 had watched over her, along with Aeris, but soon the Ancient had to leave. Her group wanted to head out to find out what Sepiorth was up to. The two animals didn't stop them. The day before Elora woke up, they left. Silent and Pink watched them leave, standing near the entrance to the city. As the tip of the wolf's tail, that was in the group, disappeared. Both creatures ran back to the building where Elora was. A day afterward she had woken up. Both cat and wolf were happy and ecstatic to see her awake.  
  
"What happened?" Elora mumbles as she looks at the panther beside her.  
  
"Aeris told us you passed out. We were hoping you could tell us."  
  
Elora's eyes flash to blue, reflecting her loss of strength and now reflecting her sadness. Pink notices the change and nudges Silent. Both had been Elora long enough to know when her eyes changed color, not to disturb her, unless she asked for them.  
  
"All's I remember was hearing somebody snicker then nothing. I wonder if my sickness has gotten to me."  
  
"Your sick?!" Both animals say in unison.  
  
Elora smiles slightly at their shocked look.  
  
"Yes. I thought Tifa and Aeris told you. While I was asleep I heard them talking, but I couldn't wake up. Where are they anyway?"  
  
Pink speaks up.  
  
"Their group left yesterday. They said they had to find out what Sepiorth was up too."  
  
Elora's eyes go back to their usual golden color and she sits up, only to groan and place her head in her hand.  
  
"You're not going anywhere." Silent said, pushing her back into a laying position.  
  
Elora grumbles, but eventually ends up going back to sleep. Pink twitches her tail and Silent notices it.  
  
"What's wrong now?" Silent asks her as they both walk out of the room.  
  
"It's Red. He didn't even recognize me."  
  
"Red13? The wolf in the group? Why would he?"  
  
Pink whirls on the panther and Silent takes a step back, immediality regretted having even asked that.  
  
"He's my brother. That's why."  
  
Silent twitches her tail and glares at her wolf friend.  
  
"I'm sorry I asked in the way I did, but now is not the time to be squabbling. Elora's sick, Sephiroth. is on the loose and I bet you anything he knows about the secrets Elora hides within her."  
  
Pink's good eye widens then she looks down with a growl. Silent smirks, knowing she's won the battle. As time passes and Elora sleeps on, darkness falls and the two animals are running through the city. Both are panting for breathe, but neither are stopping. They reach the building where Elora is and runs inside.  
  
"Get Elora." Silent pants.  
  
Pink walks into the room and gasps aloud. Silent's ears twitch as she hears it and she walks in. She also gasps, but she jumps onto the bed. Elora is nowhere to be seen and neither is her staff. Silent notices a crimson stain on the sheets and sniffs it. She recoils back, as if struck and Pink looks up at her.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"It's blood. Elora's blood."  
  
Pink's face pales and the gem in Silent's collar glows a soft white. Both animals run out of the building and off into the city, fear making them move fast. Adrenaline makes them ignore any protests of pain as they continue running, searching for their lost owner. At around midnight, Pink falls to her stomach with a loud moan. Silent drops shortly after her. Both's worries are high, as are their fear.  
  
"Where is she?" Pink mumbles.  
  
"Wherever she is, it will not welcome our company."  
  
Pink snarls softly at Silent, but gets no response. Pink stands up and walks over to the panther. When she reaches Silent, she nudges her, but gets no response again. Pink huffs in angrier as she sees Silent has fallen asleep. Pink sighs and lays down beside her panther friend. She ends up falling asleep also. When morning came, Pink found herself awakening by a soft hand stroking across her back. She opens her eyes and lifts her head up. The figure sitting before her smiles and Pink instantly recognizes the emerald green eyes.  
  
"Aeris! What are you doing here?!"  
  
"I persuaded Cloud to come back, so I could check up on you guyz."  
  
"Cloud?" Asks Silent sleepily.  
  
Aeris points to the blonde haired male who nods his head. Pink tilts her head to the side and Silent stands up, stretching her legs and back.  
  
"It's a good thing you did."  
  
Aeris stands up also. Pink goes over to Silent and whispers something in the cat's ear. Silent snorts in slight anger but nods.  
  
"Fine."  
  
Pink walks over to the group and taps the wolf on the leg. The wolf turns towards her and Pink gestures with her head. Both wolves walk off. Aeris sighs and so does Silent.  
  
  
  
***  
  
"How did a get into this mess? I knew I should have gone to the Bone Village." A musical voice murmured.  
  
Contrary to what Aeris had said Elora had been out of the city. But only to go to the Sleeping Forest and Bone Village. Now as Elora hanged, chained to a wall, she was thinking over what had happened to her.  
  
"Confusion. Total chaos. I'm just glad Pink and Silent weren't there."  
  
Elora lapses into silence, letting her energy go to healing the wounds on her body. Inwardly she was cursing herself for not being more alert. Especially since she could have tried harder to protect herself.  
  
Flashback  
  
Elora lays sleeping on her bed. Almost as soon as dusk falls, a sound catches her ear. Despite benign sick she wakes up and finds herself looking in the eyes of Sephiroth. She gives a cry of fright, hand instantly flying to grab her staff. As she puts it up to swipe at him with it, he puts his sword up and blocks it. A heated battle followed, with both the young girl and the silver haired man making marks on the other. However Elora's sickness had begun to won out and Sephiroth. slashed her across the leg. She falls onto the bed as the blood trickles down her leg. Sephiroth smirks, noticing how weak Elora is. He grabs her and disappears.  
  
End Flashback  
  
Elora lets her head fall back against her chest. She wished she had said good-bye to Aeris and now, as the sickness starts taking its toll on her again, she wishes she knew what was going to happen to her. She lifts her head up, then puts it back down and goes to sleeping, trying to regain her lost strength and get well. 


	5. Part Four

Ryoko: To all the people who have read this story and think it's REALLY bad.  
  
Aeris: Tell us and we'll remove it. Don't be shy. It's not going to hurt our feelings.  
  
  
  
Discliamer: We don't own FF7.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
Three days have gone by and Elora is still captured. Well in her mind she wasn't captured, just isolated. She had been allowed to walk around the cave she was in and had quickly found out where she was. The Mythril Mines. She knew the name becuase her mother had once told her of a place where there was a snake gaurding a cave. This was that cave, for there was a gaint snake outside the entrance. And Elora still had yet to find an exit. This would be the day she would do just that. As she walks, with a slight limp in her leg, she comes across an opening she never saw before. Elora leans aganist the entrance as she looks at this new area, resting her leg. The injury had healed, mostly. It still would hurt, if walked on for an extended period of time.  
  
"I want out of this cave." Elora whispers.  
  
She stands up and walks further into the new area. She looks over the area and finds two other doorways. One was within walking distance. The other on a cliff. The one on the cliff had to be climbed to get too, but Elora didn't care. She slowly starts climbing the vine. When she reachs the top, she sits on the ground for a few minutes, resting. When her leg stops throbing, she gets up and walks through the door way. She's meet with darkness and bitter cold when she finally stops. This was when she realized she was out of the cave. She gives a slight smile and starts walking. The staff on her back glimmers in the moonlight as she stops walking.  
  
"Where am I?" Elora whispers.  
  
She had never been further out then the Bone Village and had no clue where she was. She starts up her walk again and looks around. After a while, she spots what looks like a fort, with a beatiful bird on the top. Elora walks closer to the fort to try and get a closer look at the bird. It looked like a pheniox, or an eagle. Elora walks inside the fort and sees another rope. She sighs and climbs up it. Once she gets to the top, she sighs again as she sees one more rope. She climbs up it and looks around. She sees a few people and some stairs. Her heart sinks and she walks over to a man.  
  
"Excuse me." She mumurs to get his attetion.  
  
The man turns to look at her and smiles.  
  
"What do you need?" He asks.  
  
"A place to stay and some food." Elora answers.  
  
The man smiles again and leads her to another rope. He climbs down and Elora follows, vaugely wondering how many more ropes she will have to climb. When Elora lands and stands up, she notices four beds in a row.  
  
"You may sleep here tonight, free of charge."  
  
Elora's eyes light up.  
  
"I can? Oh thank you!"  
  
The man smiles and climbs back up the rope. Elora walks over to the bed in the far corner and takes her staff off of her back. She lays it down on the ground beside her and lays down on the bed. She instantly falls asleep, and for once in three days, sleeps soudly. As she sleeps, a black panther walks into the fort. She looks beaten up and is bleeding in a few places. As she walks, she sways and falls to her side. Her golden eyes close and the collar around her neck cracks. In the morning, Elora wakes up to much commotion upstairs. She sits up and stretchs. She felt a lot better and she didn't even feel sick anymore. She reachs over the side of the bed and grabs her staff. She stands up and puts it in it's case on her back. She gets a confused look on her face as the commotion gets louder. She climbs up the rope and stands up at the top. She sees the man from last night, but she also sees a couple of other people she hadn't seen the night before. She walks up behind them and stands up on her tipy toes to see over thier shoulders. She huffs in slight angier when she finds she can't see a thing.  
  
"Excuse me. What's going on?" Elora asks.  
  
A man, different from the one last night turns to her.  
  
"A panther turned up down below and looked about ready to attack when it woke up."  
  
Elora's golden eyes widen when the news sinks in. The man takes a closer look at her and nods.  
  
"What?" Elora asks with caution.  
  
"You have the same color eyes as that panther."  
  
"Let me see it!"  
  
The crowd parts to let Elora see the panther. Her eyes widen again and she runs forward, ignoring her leg. She gets down beside her and holds the panther's head in her arms.  
  
"Silent? Silent! Wake up!" Elora cries.  
  
The panther twitchs her tail and utters a low groan. Elora hugs her panther friend around the neck and a green orb in her staff glows softly. The wounds on the panther's body heals and she opens her eyes.  
  
"Elora?" She asks.  
  
Elora nods and pulls back. The crowd looks at Elora with confusion and both cat and girl stand up.  
  
"Everyone. My name is Elora Day and this is my friend Silent Moon. I know she looks vicious, but she's actually quite tame. I have humbly asked for food and a place to sleep. And I've gotten one of the things I needed. The thing I need now is some food for me and my friend. Would anyone like to spare some?"  
  
The crowd nods happily and goes off to get some food. Elora sighs and Silent smiles. The golden-eyed girl turns to her panther friend and smiles.  
  
"So, what happened?" Elora asks. 


	6. Part Five

Ryoko: Here you go!  
  
  
  
Dsicalimer: WE don't own FF7.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
  
  
Silent flicks her tail and walks over to a table. Elora follows her and sits down. The man from last night comes over and brings Elora some bread, chicken, and some milk for Silent. Elora nods her thankz and the man leaves. As Elora eats, Silent tells of what happened to her.  
  
Flashback  
  
The group was walking just outside the entrance to the Mythril Mines. They had covered a lot of ground while looking for Elora and they figured they could cut across the marsh to the caves. What they hadn't counted on was a sneak attack by both the Midgar Zolom and Sephiorth. Silent and Pink14 were the first ones to hear the snake.  
  
"Look out!"  
  
A brown haired girl gets knocked to the ground and the battle starts. The leader, a blonde haired male with pericing blue eyes is the first to attack. He runs forward and slashes the snake with his sword. Silent and Pink stay back. Both had a feeling something else was going to happen. Thier suspiciouns are confirmed when Silent is sent rolling across the ground. She groans softly and lifts her head up.  
  
"Pink! Look out!" Silent cries.  
  
Pink gets slashed along her back by a long sword. She yelps and collapses to the ground. Blood quickly seeps out of the wound and Silent growls loudly.  
  
"What do you want?" Silent asks.  
  
Sephiorth smirks and three members of the party turn around. One is the red wolf, another is Aeris, and the last is a young girl. The girl is slim and very agile looking. She has messed up brown hair with a bandanna on. her brown eyes sparkle with a hint of mischief. She's the youngest of the group, but don't let that fool you. She throws what appears to be an overgrown shuriken. Sephiorth sidesteps it but Silent rushes forward and pounces on him. He growls and as Silent tries to bite him, he throws her off of him. She lands on her back with a thud and lays still. An orb in Aeris' staff glows and a thunder bolt hits Sephiorth in the chest. He growls and rounds on her. The red wolf pounces on his back and the young girl throws her shuriken. The shuirken hits and the wolf gets a chance to slash at Sephiorth twice before he gets thrown off. The wolf lands beside Pink and look at her. Her breathing is raspy and blood from her wound had formed a pool around her. The young girl notices and throws her shuriken as she runs towards Pink and the red wolf. Silent slowly wakes up and notices Sephiorth is going to attack Aeris. She runs forward and pounces on him. She claws at his back and succeeds in ripping the skin before she's thrown off. She gets thrown at Aeris and both fall to the ground when the hit connects. The rest of the party members turn towards Sephiorth as the Midgar Zolom fades into nothing. The brown haired woman who had got knocked to the ground at the bennging of the battle helps Aeris up. Silent slowly stands up and runs towards Sephiorth.  
  
"Stay away from them." She growls dangerously.  
  
Sephiorth turns towards Silent with a smirk on his face. He holds out his hand. On that hand is a green orb. It glows and a black ball comes out and hits Silent. She gets thrown back and skids acorss the ground. When she finally comes to a stop, she lies still, her breathing raspy and her face pale. The red wolf, the young girl, and the brown haired woman rush forward. The woman unleashes a barrage of punches and kicks on Sephiorth and the red wolf pounces on him. The young girl throws her shuriken and the leader rushes forward and slashes him. A green orb on his sword hilt glows and Aeris lets out a cry. The area around Sephiorth grows hot and a wall of fire appears around him. It expands, hitting everyone. That is the last thing Silent remembers until she wakes up. When she does, she sees none of the party members. So that is why she decided to come to Fort Condor.  
  
End Flashback  
  
Elora had sat back and listened attentively. Now as Silent finishes her story, Elora looks over to her.  
  
"Did Pink survive?" She asks.  
  
Silent nods.  
  
"That young girl and Nanaki healed her."  
  
Elora lets out a soft laugh and stands up. She walks over to stairs and walks up them. Silent follows closely behind and looks confused.  
  
"What?" She asks, twitching her tail in annoyance.  
  
"Now that you know his real name, your going to call him that aren't you?"  
  
A slight flush appears on Silent's face and Elora laughs again. She reachs the top of the stairs and sees a man. She immedailty reconizes it as the man from last night. He turns towards her and smiles.  
  
"How do you feel?" He asks.  
  
"A lot better.. Thankz a lot for your hospitality."  
  
The man smiles and he gestures for her to come up beside her. She does and looks shocked as she looks out the window.  
  
"Oh wow." She breaths.  
  
She has a close up view of the pheniox on the top of the fort. It looks more beatiful then it did last night and now she can see that is has a nest.  
  
"Oh wow. Thankz for letting me see it."  
  
The man smiles and nods.  
  
"We are quiet welcome."  
  
Elora jumps down and smiles. She starts walking down the stairs with Silent behind her, but stops as the man calls her.  
  
"Will you be leaving?" He asks.  
  
Elora turns back and nods.  
  
"I have to find my friends. They musy be worried sick about me."  
  
The man nods and Elora walks down the stairs. She climbs down the two ropes and walks out in front of Fort Condor. She looks back and smiles happyily. She then turns and walks towards the nearest area. Unfortantly for her, that was a forest. Little did she know, somebody, other then her friends or Sephiorth, was looking for her. 


	7. Part Six

Ryoko: About what we said about removing this story if we get enough reviews.  
  
Aeris: We're not going to do it.  
  
  
  
Discliamer: We don't own FF7, but Elora, Silent Moon, and Pink14 belong to us. Kriel belongs to a good friend of mine named MercuryKnight. You should read his story. (Kriel is used with permission of course.)  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
The day wears on and Elora and Silent keep walking. Close to dusk, Elora's leg had started hurting so she took to sitting on Silent's back. She had sparked a converstation with the young panther and was trying to get her to keep talking. As the sun sets, the sky is filled with many brillant colors of yellow, red, orange, blue and purple. Elora looks up, smiling. Silent keeps walking and as the sun competely sets they reach the edge of the forest.  
  
"I hope we don't run into any monsters." Elora whispers.  
  
"Get off." Silent says.  
  
Elora slids off Silent's back and the gem in the middle of her collar glows softly. Elora watchs as the panther runs into the forest. She takes out a yellow orb from her staff and holds it out in front of her. She glows softly and Elora looks around. She senses something but it disappers too quickly for her to get a read on it. Silent comes running back and Elora puts the orb back into her staff. Both walk into the forest and Elora smiles.  
  
"Just like home, isn't it?" She asks.  
  
Silent nods and looks up at the sky. Her name, Silent Moon, meant many things. But there was only one true meaning to her name and it was the meaning she used. Silent was to entile that she was quiet, which was true, sometimes. And Moon because she loved looking up at the night sky. As both walk, Elora notices her friend is more quiet then usual.  
  
"Silent, what's wrong? You were never this quiet, not even when I found you almost dead in the Sleeping Forest."  
  
Silent reveals that she feels regret for what happened to Pink during the battle with the Midgar Zolom and Sephiorth. Elora smiles softly and gets on her knees beside Silent. She takes the big cats head in her arms and forces Silent to look at her.  
  
"Listen to me, Silent. You should not blame yourself for what happened to Pink. You tried to cry out to her. She didn't hear you and got attacked. From what you told me, you got your revenage for that. Stop dwelling. She probably forgives you. Besides Nanaki and that young girl healed her right? Now come on."  
  
Elora stands up and Silent looks up at her in shock. She was very wise beyond her years and that often seemed to help the two animals. Now Silent felt she had carried a heavy burden on her back that had just gotten off. Silent smiles and offers to keep watch as Elora sleeps. Elora smiles and lays down under a tree. She quickly ends up falling asleep. At around midnight, she wakes up to hear low growling. The growl jolts Elora awake. That growl was from Silent if there was an intruder around. She stands up and faintly hears Silent tell somebody her name. Elora is curious to know who Silent has found.  
  
"Silent, please get off of him." Elora spoke in a soft voice.  
  
Silent gives one last growl, but still doesn't get up.  
  
"I'm Kriel. I would like to talk to you." The firgure under Silent says.  
  
Silent lets him up and stalks behind Elora, glaring. Kriel gets up and walks over to Elora. Elora looks up at him, but can't make out his features. Oh well, she could wait till morning.  
  
"I have a lot to explain so it could take a while." Kriel says as they walk back towards where Elora's small camp.  
  
"Who are you anyway?" Kriel asks.  
  
"I'm Elora from the City of the Anicents to the north. Me and one other are basically the last of our kind. And you are the first of your kind, I think."  
  
Elora couldn't tell if he was human or not, but something about him made her think he wasn't. Elora giggles and a spark appears in her eye as she leans aganist a tree.  
  
"Well, I can see you have quite the protection from Silent here." He said pointing to the big panther.  
  
Silent turns her head with a very low growl. Elora was the only one to catch it. Somehow, if Kriel had been here before, which Elora thought impossible, Silent might know him. But why the cold personality? Maybe he had done something to her. Kriel tells Elora his story and Elora finds herself falling asleep. Not out of boredom, but pure exhuastion. Elora bids good night as he finishes and lays down. She's aware of him watching her as she falls asleep. The moonlight casts its light over Elora, giving the red part of her hair a glow to it. Her staff glimmers. A twig is snapped as a panther stalks around the camp, then all is silent. 


	8. Part Seven

Ryoko: Whoa!  
  
Aeris: That was SO GOOD!  
  
  
  
Discliamer: We don't own FF7. Elora, Pink14, and Silent Moon belong to me. Kriel belongs to MercuryKnight (Used with permission)  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
The sun rises the next morning, to find Kriel, Elora, and Silent Moon asleep. Elora is the first to wake up. She sits up and stretchs. She puts her arms down and looks over to the branch Silent is on. The panther's angier had mad Elora uneasy. She knew that the big cat wasn't going to trust Kriel anytime soon, it had tooken her over a month for her to trust Elora. But somehow, Elora felt Silent should change her mind REAL quick about that. The sound of somebody stirring draws Elora's attetion away from the sleeping panther. She turns her head and smiles as she sees Kriel alseep on the ground. He seemed only slightly taller then Elora and had beatiful greenish blue hair. Elora sits and plays with his hair for a few minutes, forming small braids. She muffles her laughter and right before she stands up, she kisses his forehead. She stands up and walks off in the direction of the lake. Five minutes later found her splashing in the water, getting cleaned off. Another five minutes pass and Elora becomes aware of somebody watching her. She smiles slightly. She knew who it was. She turns her head back for a very brief instant and sees Kriel turn his head away. She smiles again and dives under the surface of the water. Twenty minutes pass and Elora walks into the clearing where the camp was. She has a blue dress with a red tint silk dress on and her hair is back up in it's braid.  
  
"Ummm....well, where do we go from here?" Kriel asks.  
  
Elora walks over to her packback. The one that she had gotten from Fort Condor and rummages through it. Silent walks up and sits down, flicking her tail in slight irratation.  
  
"I need to get these replaced, so we should get to a town as soon as possible." Kriel says, holding up his weapon.  
  
Elora looks over her shoulder and sees the weapon he's holding up. It doesn't look familar to her. Maybe her could use a sword or dagger. Elora thinks about that, then represses a shudder. Sword was defanitly out. Maybe a gun? Elora does a very slight shrug, then stands up. Elora then notices Kriel had gone over to his own pack.  
  
"But right now I should get wash up. So umm...I'll head to that lake."  
  
Elora giggles softly as he starts off in the oppisite direction.  
  
"Where is it again?" He asks, innocently.  
  
"The lake is that way, Kriel." Elora said, pointing to the north.  
  
"We'll head to Junon and then I have to get back to the city and get back to standing gaurd at the temple. I hope we find Aeris on our way though." Elora says as a feeling of sadness washes over her.  
  
Elora clutchs her staff and her eyes start to water, remembering the day Elora had first meet Aeris and Sephiorth. On that day, Aeris looked truly tranquil, as if she knew she was going to die. On the other hand, Sephiorth had a look of pure murder. Kriel walks over and pulls Elora to his chest as Elora keeps replaying the memories in her head.  
  
Don't worry too much. We'll find your friends, even your friend Pink14. I will protect you and we will get Sephiorth back for his deeds."  
  
Kriel hugs Elora tighter as she cries into his shoulder. But as Elora finally let out her angier and frustation, she couldn't help wondering. How had he known about Pink14? She hadn't mentioned her yet. Maybe he had seen her. Maybe she had gotten serpated from the group, much like Silent had.  
  
"I miss Pink so much and I fear for Aeris's life. Sephiorth wanted to kill her for some reason."  
  
Elora looks up at Kriel. Tears kept coming down her face, but it didn't matter to her. One thing that had been foremost on Elora's mind, besides finding her friends, was why Sephiorth wanted to kill her. Had she done something wrong? She doubted it, but still....  
  
"I really want you to stay with me, please? I feel something about you and I think you should stay."  
  
Almost as Elora had got done saying that, she realized it didn't quite sound right. But she couldn't correct it now. But she was still crying, so she didn't really think it mattered.  
  
"Don't worry, Elora. I'll stay with you. I feel something. I don't know what it is though, but I will find out!" Kriel said, then kissed her forehead.  
  
Neither Kriel nor Elora knew, but he had been thier before. Silent was the only one who knew it and that was one of the main reasons she didn't trust him. As she walks up, she sees Kriel kiss Elora. She growls loudly.  
  
"Don't try anything, sneaky boy." She growls out, then leaves again.  
  
"Elora, I'll go wash up. I'll be back soon."  
  
Elora waves and Kriel returns it as he walks off. Elora sits down on a tree stump and looks up into the sky.  
  
"There's something about him and Silent. I wonder what happened."  
  
It hits her and she gasps softly.  
  
"No."  
  
She had just remembered that Silent had had a sister, back when she was living in the Sleeping Forest. Elora puts her head in her hand and sighs.  
  
"Is that what happened? Has he been here before? Was he the one who killed her sister?"  
  
The answer to the second one she didn't know, but as she would soon find out, the answer to the thrid was no. 


	9. Part Eight

Ryoko: MercuryKnight, this one is for you.  
  
  
  
Disclimaer: We don't own FF7. We do own Elora, Pink14, and Silent Moon. Kriel belongs to MercuryKnight.  
  
  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
It was later on into the day. The sun was raised high into the sky and three travelers are soon walking through a forest. A panther is standing beside a girl. The girl can hear the panther growl very softly every so often. The girl whispers something to the panther and the panther turns her head away, revealing her collar.  
  
"Hey, what is with that collar on Silent?" Kriel asks, the last of the three travelers.  
  
Elora bends down and looks at it.  
  
"What happened to the materia?" She asks.  
  
She unhooks the collar and takes out the crystal in the middle. She takes out the ribbon in her hair, in turn that takes down her braid. She puts the crystal onto the ribbon, then puts her braid back up. She ties the ribbon to the end and keeps walking. The soft glow of the crystal makes the red tints in Elora's hair shine oddly.  
  
"I'll keep it on me until we get it fixed."  
  
Silent nods and contuies her walk.  
  
"What's a materia?" Kriel asks.  
  
"It's the source of magic in the world. See!" Elora answers, then makes a fireball in her open hand.  
  
"Oh. You mean magic like this?"  
  
Kriel holds his hand out and a purple glow surronds Silent. Silent gets scared, not knowing about this type of magic. She rolls on the ground. Kriel drops his hand and the glow disappers. Silent looks herself over and is amazed to find no burns. Elora turns to looks at Kriel, also amazed.  
  
"You don't have any materia on! How did you do that?" Elora says with a gasp, looking back as Silent.  
  
"It's a natural ability used by drow." Kriel explained to Elora.  
  
He showed her others. Then he told her part of the other abilities of the drow. The dark drow. But he assured her he wasn't one of them. Then they keep walking. Occiasonally monsters would appear, but all three would be able to defeat them. That's when they finally exit the forest. Elora noticed that Kriel had a distant look on his face, like he was remembering something. When he finally stopped, both Elora and Silent stopped a few seconds afterward. Elora walks over and puts her hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Are you ok?" She spoke in a soothing voice.  
  
Kriel looked at her, then over to Silent.  
  
"It's like I've been here before."  
  
He looks up to the moon that had risen early. Silent follows his gaze, then turns back to him.  
  
"I keep having these feelings of dejavu."  
  
Kriel looks at Silent, then at the forest behind her. Elora notices he gets a look of pain on his face, then he collapses. Elora runs forward and catchs him. Silent gives a disapporving growl, but helps Elora carry him to shade, which was right back into the forest.  
  
"Silent? What do you think made him do that?" Elora asks her friend.  
  
Silent does a shrug with her front legs and tail, then she walks off. Elora watchs her go, then begins braiding Kriel's hair again. This time she gets the braids to stay. She stays beside him and watchs as Silent stalks around. Even without the collar, she could easily see the dark panther, even in the darkest part of the forest. Hours pass and Silent comes walking up to her.  
  
"Silent, why are you so untrust worthy? I know you don't get to know people easily. It took you longer then a monther to trust me and two months just to trust Pink. So how long will it take you to trust him?"  
  
"Never." Silent answers.  
  
Elora looks shocked at her friend's answer.  
  
"Why not?" Elora asks.  
  
"He was here many years ago. He is not from this world and is not to be trusted."  
  
Elora doesn't like the panther's answer. Was it true what she prevously thought? Elora is still thinking about what she said when Kriel suddenly yells out. Both girl and panther look at him and he turns to Silent.  
  
"Silent, why can I not be trusted? I've never been here before."  
  
Elora knew Silent was not a liar. Espically from all those years of living with her. Kriel starts walking over to Elora and Silent jumps in the way.  
  
"You were here many years ago. In the middle of the night, you killed my sister. She was everything to me." Silent growls, ferciously.  
  
"I remember now. I didn't kill her. I appeared and then Sephiorth appeared. He killed that panther and left me there for a couple of minutes. You arrived and I disappered."  
  
Silent didn't want to believe it. Her sister was the last living family she had left and with her death she grew hard, not trusting others very easily. That is, until she meet Elora. Silent had gotten attacked in the Sleeping Forest and was left to die. Elora had been on a chance walk that day to the Bone Village and instantly helped her when she saw how injured she was. She didn't trust her, not even after healing her. Elora let her roam the city and temple until the day came when Elora saved her from getting killed by another attacker.  
  
"If it means anything to you, I'll help you get revenage on Sephiorth."  
  
Silent flicks her tail in mild annoyance. The memories of the night her sister died were fresh in her mind, even though it was over six years ago. And seeing Kriel there when she arrived didn't help her anger any.  
  
"Listen you. We might have saved you when you collapsed, but I'm not going to trust you totally."  
  
Silent growls once more at Kriel, then turns to Elora.  
  
"His fate is in your hands now, Elora."  
  
She turns and walks off, needing to get the memories and angier out of her system.  
  
"Well I remember now. I was here long ago, but I don't know how I got here. It's getting dark. We should rest here."  
  
He unbuckles his sword belt and looks over at Elora.  
  
"I'll stay up for awhile. You should get some rest."  
  
Elora was still shocked. How long after Silent's sister had died did she meet up with her? Only three months? Was that why Silent hadn't trusted her? Because she thought Elora would kill her? Elora shakes the thoughts from her head and turns to Kriel.  
  
"Okay. I'll get some rest."  
  
She lays down and closes her eyes. She still felt save around him, but now there was more to know about him. And Elora had some things she wanted to ask Silent. But she would never get the chance. 


	10. Part Nine

Ryoko: Hmm.  
  
*Aeris laughs*  
  
Aeris: Nothing to say? Then I can write this one.  
  
Ryoko: Go ahead.  
  
  
  
Disclimaer: I don't own FF7, but Elora, Silent Moon, and Pink14 belong to us. Kriel belongs to MercuryKnight.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
A few days pass and the weary travelers finally arrive at Junon. Elora was looking in amazment at the city. She could see a canon pointing out into the ocean and told Kriel about it. One of the things she was grateful for was that her mother was born in Junon. Her father was born in Midgar. That's the only thing Elora really knew about her parents, expect how they died and she wasn't in the mood to remember. Both walk into the city. Elora's leg had started hurting again, so she was currently sitting on the panther's back. The panther had been in a bad mood every since she had confronted Kriel about her sister. Shortly after she had left and Elora had finally gone to sleep, Elora had thought she heard somebody snicker. Even asleep, she tuned in on it and heard it once more. She knew who it was, but kept quiet about it. He was watching them. He knew she was getting closer to her friends. And he knew the time to attack was soon.  
  
"Is there a weapons shop anywhere?" Kriel asks, looking around.  
  
"Well, there should be one around here somewhere. There is still a city on top of the platform, I think." Elora says, pointing up the platforms edge.  
  
"I think it's up there."  
  
Silent flicks her tail and sniffs the air. Elora instantly notices her body tense up.  
  
"Well, Elora. Watch yourself. Sephiorth might be around becuase they sent him this way." Kriel says, then looks up.  
  
"Also I think I might have a friend here who might be able to help us."  
  
Elora lets out a slight shudder.  
  
"Okay Kriel. I'll go see when the next ship departs."  
  
They walk onto the elevator and waits as it goes up.  
  
"I hope your friend is here. I would very much like to meet him." Elora says, going back to being polite.  
  
There was one thing her parents had taught her. Be polite to those older then you. And Elora could tell by looking at him, that he was older then him.  
  
"Kriel, are you alright? Your not going to pass out on me are you?" Elora asks with some concern in her voice.  
  
"I'm okay, Elora. Just thinking if my friend was here or not." Kriel said in a low voice.  
  
The lights stopped and then so did the elevator. They got off and Kriel said he was going to a weapons shop. They split up there, with Kriel leaving his last message to Elora.  
  
"Elora, take care of yourself and I'll see you at the docks."  
  
Elora waves as Silent walks on. She wouldn't see him again for a couple of days.  
  
"I don't see what you see in him." Silent mumurs.  
  
"I see a great teenager, who's far away from home and just wants to help out. In hopes of finding a way home."  
  
Silent huffs and Elora smiles.  
  
"Hey I need to upgrade. Let's go."  
  
Silent nods and walks down the alleyway Kriel had gone. They enter a shop and Elora gets off Silent's back. She walks up to a counter and puts her arms on it and gets on her tipy toes, trying to see over it.  
  
"May I help you?" A voice says with a hint of amusment.  
  
"I'm trying to upgrade my weapon. Is this the weapons shop?"  
  
"Yes it is. What is your weapon and do you have any gil?"  
  
"A staff and yes I do."  
  
"Then hold on."  
  
Silent sits down in a corner and looks at Elora. She smiles in slight amusement as Elora tries to see over the counter again. She jumps up and is successful in hanging there with her elbows. The man comes back and puts a couple of staffs on the counter. Elora looks at them, then jumps down and grabs her staff off of her back. She jumps back onto the counter and puts it down on it.  
  
"Which one is better then this one?"  
  
The man looks between Elora's staffs and his staffs. He picks up a red one and holds it out to Elora.  
  
"This one. Would you like to purchase it?"  
  
Elora looks at it.  
  
"Pretty. Yea."  
  
"250 gil."  
  
Elora jumps down and rummages through her backpack. She only comes out with 100 gil. The man makes an expection and accepts the money. Elora smiles and happily puts her materia into her new staff. She gives the staff to the man and walks out, waving. The man waves back and cat and girl walk out onto the main streets.  
  
"Your happy." Silent notes.  
  
"So are you." Elora says.  
  
Elora notices Silent suddenly tense. Silent sniffs the air, then twitchs her ears and tail. She takes off running and Elora runs after her for a few feet. She stops and sighs.  
  
"One of these chasing games again. OH!"  
  
She runs back into the weapons shop and jumps onto the counter.  
  
"Excuse me? Can you fix a collar?" Elora asks.  
  
The man turns to her and nods.  
  
"Yes why?"  
  
"A friend of mine's collar cracked and I need it repaired."  
  
Elora takes out the cracked collar and holds it out to the man. He takes it and nods.  
  
"Easily fixed. It will only take a few minutes."  
  
Elora nods and waits. Then begins wondering what happened to Silent to get her so spooked. The man returns five minutes later and hands her the fixed collar. The blue black striped collar looked better then new. Elora smiles.  
  
"Thankz!"  
  
She runs out of the shop and back out onto the main road. She runs down the street, holding out the collar. The black stripes glow softly and Elora turns in that direction. She sees the entrance to the docks.  
  
"Uh-oh."  
  
She walks over to the man standing on the pier.  
  
"Did a panther just run by?" She asks.  
  
The man nods and points to inside the boat.  
  
"He went in there, but you can't go in."  
  
Elora scuffs and runs past him. He gives chase, but soon gives up. Elora finds herself on what looks like to be a big cargo ship. She walks into a corner and hides behind the boxes, waiting for it to start and waiting for the people to clear up. 


	11. Part Ten

Ryoko: I'm writing this one.  
  
Aeris: Finally. *Ryoko gives no comment*  
  
Disclimaer: I don't own FF7. But Elora, Silent, and Pink14 belong to me.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
*Dream*  
  
A six year old girl is seen standing in a doorway. The light behind gives her a sort of silouhette and also gives her red tints an eerie glow. Two clock dails are in front of her. She wants to get across, but doesn't know how. One of the clock dails was leading to the middle from where she stood, but the other lead to another room. She runs across and runs across to the new room. She stops suddenly as suddenly feeling of dread washes over her. She starts running again and soon returns where she needs to go. She pants for air as she sees a door open off to her side.  
  
"Oh god!"  
  
She runs into the room. She holds out her staff and a yellow sheild surronds her as a hot blast of fire goes past her. The girl lifts her head up and gasps loudly. A red dragon is in front of her, growling loudly. She looks down to his claws and looks saddened. The claws on his left foot are drenched in blood and is still dripping blood. The girl lifts her head up to see the dragon's mouth descending upon her. She tries to moves out of the way, but it latchs onto her arm. She cries out in pain as the dragon tries to pull her down. She resists, knowing if she falls, she's dead.  
  
"Ice 3!"  
  
A boulder made out of ice appears above the dragon and crashes into him. He lets go and the girl pulls back, cradling her injured arm and crying. The dragon lets out a growl then stalks off. The girl runs forward and gets down on her knees beside a woman. The woman is dressed in a blue dress that falls to her knees. The girl puts a hand to the woman's stomache, where it's stained red. The woman shakes her head and looks at the girl with amythest purple eyes.  
  
"Elora, I'm sorry I can't stay with you."  
  
"But why not? I can cure you."  
  
The woman shakes her head. Her golden hair falls onto her face as she puts her head to the side.  
  
"I'm sorry Elora." She repeats.  
  
"Momma? Come on, we can heal this." The girl persists.  
  
The woman shakes her head again and puts her head weakly onto the girl's arm. The girl flinchs under her touch but doesn't move away. The hand glows and so does an orb. The wound heals, leaving faint scars. Then her hand falls to the ground limp.  
  
"Momma? Momma?" The girl asks, shaking the woman.  
  
"MOMMA?!" She screams, crying.  
  
*End dream*  
  
Elora wakes up with a start, drenched in sweat. A familar soft purring is heard beside her. Elora draws her knees up to her chest and shudders. She looks over to the sleeping panther beside her and smiles.  
  
"At least I have friends. It was hard durning those times, but I survived. Now I'm here to help Aeris and kill Sephiorth. And keep him from killing her."  
  
Elora takes the ribbon out of her hair and looks at the materia on it. The white crystal is glowing slightly.  
  
"I wonder if this will help."  
  
She reachs into her backpack and takes out the collar. She puts the materia in and hooks it around Silent's neck. The panther stirs slightly but doesn't wake up.  
  
"Wake up sleepy head." Elora says, putting her hair back up.  
  
Silent stirs again and opens her eyes. She shakes her head and looks up at Elora.  
  
"How long was I asleep?" She asks.  
  
Elora shurgs as the big panther gets up and stretchs.  
  
"You were here when I woke up."  
  
Elora yawns and stands up.  
  
"Let's look around this big ship."  
  
Silent nods and both walk off. An hour later found them in the engine room. Nothing out of the orinary. At least to Silent. Elora was tensed up and holding her staff out in front of her. Silent walks around, sniffing and twitching her ears.  
  
"Nothing's wrong, Elora."  
  
"I feel...something evil. AH!"  
  
Elora gets slammed down to the ground. Silent looks around as Elora slowly gets up.  
  
"Owww. What was that?" Elora asks, rubbing her head.  
  
Silent gives a slight shurg, moving over to Elora. Elora puts up her staff, looking around. Silent's ears twitch and Elora tenses up as both hear a snicker.  
  
"He's back." Silent comments.  
  
Elora nods and looks around. A fight was going to ensure, but how could the two fight if they couldn't even see thier enemy. The answer came soon enough. A flash of silver flies by and Elora collapses to one knee, holding a wound on her leg. Silent growls loudly and lunges at Sephiorth. Sephiorth smirks and throws her down to the ground. Her collar shatters as Sephiorth brings his sword around to cut into Silent's neck. The white crystal rolls away from Silent and Elora groans softly as she tries to stand. She collapses to her knee again, leaning on her staff. Silent stands up and tries to lunge at Sephiorth again. He again throws her down to the ground. This time she stays down. Elora growls, but is unable to do anything. She looks at Sephiorth and then looks the way he is looking.  
  
"NO!"  
  
Elora runs forward, competely ignoring her leg. She grabs the white crystal and puts up her staff to attack Sephiorth. He blocks it and tries to swipe at Elora's hand. She moves but gets thrown back into the wall by a demi attack by Sephiorth. She lays still, still gripping the white crystal. Sephiorth smirks and walks forward. As he reachs down to take the crystal, it glows a pale green. He whinces slightly and disappers. Niether Elora nor Silent knows of what happened when Sephiorth tried to take the crystal, but Sephiorth does. It was protecting her. 


	12. Part Eleven

Aeris: Ryoko is here to watch my typing.  
  
Ryoko: Let's see if you can do it right.  
  
Disclimaer: I don't own FF7, but Elora, Pink14, and Silent Moon belong to me. Kriel belongs to MercuryKnight.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
The day wears on and the ship keeps going to Costa Del Sol. On it, a black panther and a thirteen year old girl struggle to wake up. As the girl struggles, a wound in her leg slowly heals. Finally, when night falls, she wakes up. She opens her golden eyes and sits up, groaning softly.  
  
"Silent? Silent!" She calls.  
  
The panther twitchs her tail and opens her eyes.  
  
"Now need to yell, Elora."  
  
"How do you feel?" Elora asks.  
  
Silent stands up and stretchs.  
  
"I could be better. I hurt all over." Silent answers.  
  
Elora nods in agreement and stands up, stretching.  
  
"So do I. Come on, the ship should be docked."  
  
Both walk out of the engine room and out into the cargo part. Silent twitchs her tail and sniffs the air.  
  
"Somebodies been here. Thier scent is still in the air."  
  
Elora looks over to Silent, then walks off the ship and onto the pier. Silent follows behind her and sniffs the air again.  
  
"It's too dark to travel now. Let's rent a room and travel tomarrow."  
  
Silent nods and they walk to a hotel. Elora bows politely to the clerk.  
  
"I need a room."  
  
"How long?"  
  
"Tonight only."  
  
"100 gil."  
  
Elora opens her pack and takes out a hundred gil. She hands it to the clerk, who takes it.  
  
"Do you allow pets?" Elora asks.  
  
The clerk nods and Silent smiles.  
  
"I'll lead you to your room."  
  
Ten minutes later found Elora laying on a bed, looking at the ceiling. The room was nice, enough room for both cat and girl to be confortable, yet not too big.  
  
"Who's scent are you picking up, Silent?" Elora asks.  
  
Silent sniffs the air again and swishes her tail.  
  
"The wolves."  
  
Elora sits up and looks at Silent.  
  
"Both of them?" She asks.  
  
Silent nods and her eyes start casting an eerie glow as the moonlight falls over her body. Elora notices the numerous cuts on her body and wonders why she didn't say anything.  
  
"Silent..."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"How come you never told me you were injured?"  
  
"How come you never told me?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Your leg."  
  
Elora puts a hand to her leg and whinces. being too caught up in finding her friends had distracted her. And she was now feeling how exhausted she really was. She lays back down on the bed with a sigh.  
  
"Why do I have a feeling this will not be a good night?"  
  
Silent shrugs and licks her paw. She rubs her ear, but keeps her eyes on Elora.  
  
"Go to sleep, Elora. I'll stay up."  
  
Elora sits up and looks at her.  
  
"Always independent. You need rest."  
  
Silent does a kind of soft purring laugh. Elora smiles and walks into the bathroom. As Elora changes, Silent jumps onto the bed and sniffs the little bit of blood that had gotten onto the confonter from Elora's wound.  
  
"Why doesn't she heal herself? She's strong enough too."  
  
The smell of the blood stirs something from within Silent. Long repressed memories. Silent represses them again and jumps down onto the floor, making no sound. Elora comes out of the bathroom dressed in a blue nightgown. Silent bides her good-night as both lay down. Elora returns it and falls asleep almost instantly. Silent however stays awake. She flicks her tail and stands back up. She stands up on her hind legs and puts her front legs onto the bed. She watchs Elora sleep, not caring about what the young girl said. Silent was worried about her. She could see how pale her face was when the moonlight casted it's light on her and noticed her quick, unever breathing.  
  
"Nightmares."  
  
Silent touchs her nose on Elora's forehead and a crystal, embedded in her front left paw glows softly. Elora's injury heals and so does her own. Elora's breathing becomes even and her face regains it's color. Silent puts her paws back onto the floor and lays down. She falls asleep and a nightmare of her own starts.  
  
*Nightmare*  
  
A black panther runs through the Bone Village. She's ignoring all the shouting people. She gives a growl as she gets stopped in the front of the Sleeping Forest.  
  
"Get out of my way human. Before I kill you."  
  
The human doesn't back down. The panther narrows her eyes and growls more loudly.  
  
"Get out of my way!"  
  
The human shakes his head and steps towards the panther. The panther takes a step back.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"You need a speacial item to get into the forest."  
  
The panther sits down, glaring.  
  
"You must be new around here."  
  
The human nods and the panther smirks. If she had done what she had intended, what she feared wouldn't have had happened.  
  
"I live in the forest. And everybody knows who I am. Since you are new, I will tell you. I am Silent Moon and never get in my way!"  
  
Silent lunges at the human and knocks him down. She keeps running and arrives at the trial her and her sister always take. She stops short as her nose catchs something wrong in the air. She smells a creature and blood?  
  
"Luna!" Silent screams as she sees a panther on the ground.  
  
It's almost identical to her for the mark on it's forehead and the gash in it's neck. Silent whrils as she senses somebody beside her and growls.  
  
"Get away from me, before I kill you."  
  
The firgure disappers and Silent walks over to Luna. She lays down beside her sister and cries softly. She hated humans from then on. She survived from stealing from the people of Bone Village and stayed in the Sleeping Forest at any other time. The only time she was not at peace was when a human attacked her.  
  
*End Nightmare*  
  
Silent wakes with a jolt. She lets out a mournful cry and runs out of the room and out of the hotel, not noticing Elora is already gone. Day had come and it was time to travel. Elora had started early, knowing Silent would full well catch up. Besides she didn't go that fast. Elora turns her head and watchs as Silent runs up beside her. Elora smiles as Silent stops. She doesn't catch the haunted look in Silent's eyes, nor does Silent notice the exhausted look in Elora's.  
  
"Can you smell the wolves?" Elora asks as the contuie walking.  
  
Silent sniffs the air and nods.  
  
"Thier not that far from us."  
  
"Pink! Red!"  
  
Silent perks her ears and smiles. Elora's eyes light up as two howls reach her ears.  
  
"Pink! Red!"  
  
Both run to try to get to the two wolves. When they finally do, they spend five minutes greeting each other and trading stories. They finally get on the move and travel over a couple of moutians. Elora looks over to the two wolves and notices the exhausted look, then she looks over to Silent and notice she's gotten tense. Elora pales and takes out her staff.  
  
"Pink, Red. Have you guys ran into any trouble?"  
  
Both nod and look up at her.  
  
"Yes. We've gotten attacked twice since we got serepated."  
  
"Prepare for a thrid." Silent says, walking in front of Elora.  
  
A gust of wind blows up and everyone sheilds thier eyes. When it stops, Elora looks up and steps back with a gasp. Red is on the ground, uncoiuncess.  
  
"You will pay, Sephiorth!" Pink yells, then lunges at the silver haired man.  
  
Sephiorth smirks and brings his sword around. Silent is there to block the attack. She slashes the hand Sephiorth's sword is in, making him stall enough for Pink to attack him. She gets in three slashes, everyone successful in tearing the skin open, before she gets thrown down. She yelps as her back hits a rock and she falls to the ground, uncoiuncess.  
  
"We shouldn't even be fighting this fight. We're too exhausted." Elora mumurs.  
  
A crystal in her staff glows red and her and Silent disapper. A woman appears and holds out her hand. It glows and ice appears on the ground around Sephiorth. It shatters, showering him with ice shards, cutting his body more. Elora and Silent reapper as the woman disappers. Sephiorth glares at Elora, who's swaying on her feet.  
  
"Elora! Look out!" Silent calls.  
  
Elora gets slashed across her face by the Sephiorth's sword. She spirals to the ground and lays still on her side. Silent roars and lunges at Sephiorth. He turns to her and smirks. A green orb in his sword's hilt glows and Silent cries out as a lightning bolt strikes her. She lands on the ground and shakily gets up on her front legs. Her back legs have temporaily been parayzled and Sephiorth turns to Elora, knowing she can't fight anymore. He's wrong. A green orb, embedded in Silent's right front paw glows. She opens her mouth and a fireball forms. She throws it at Sephiorth and when it hits his back it forms a colum of fire around him. It doesn't do much, expect give him a first degree burn, but that quickly heals. He glares at Silent, but turns back to Elora. The girl is laying at his feet, competely vunerable to his attack. Her cheek is seeping blood and is covering her face.  
  
"No! Leave her alone!" Silent yells.  
  
As Sephiorth lowers his sword, something stops him. Silent sees a bit of green-blue and gives a slight smile before she falls to her side, passing out.  
  
*Dream*  
  
"Elora."  
  
Elora looks around and looks confused. She could hear the screams coming from the planet, but she had learned long ego to tune it out. Now it was louder then ever and she couldn't tune it out.  
  
"Elora."  
  
"Momma?"  
  
A woman with gold hair appears in front of Elora and the girl gasps.  
  
"Momma!"  
  
She wraps her arms around the woman and she smiles. The woman returns the hug and Elora draws back.  
  
"Momma, I'm so happy to see you."  
  
The woman smiles again.  
  
"I'm happy to see you as well, alive and well. And even traveling the world."  
  
Elora laughs.  
  
"Couldn't be under better circumstances."  
  
This time the woman laughs.  
  
"But Elora, you have to find Aeris quick. Sephiorth keeps attacking you, to keep you from getting to her. The longer you are away, the further away she gets. Pretty soon, you will not be able to find her."  
  
Elora nods and the crystal in her hair glows. Her mother blows a kiss as she fades. Elora smiles and disappers also.  
  
*End Dream*  
  
Elora slowly opens her eyes and sits up. She's still laying where she had fallen, but her cheek was hurting. She puts a hand up to her face and feels the scar. She heals it and looks around.  
  
"Kriel?!"  
  
She runs over to him and sees blood seeping from a slash over his eye. She heals that also and waits till he wakes up. She looks up to hear a soft moaning.  
  
"Don't move, Pink. Your back could be broken."  
  
Pink obedintly stops moving and lays on the ground, looking at Elora through her good eye. Elora looks down at Kriel to see him looking at her. She jumps, then hugs him.  
  
"I'm so glad your alright!"  
  
Kriel smiles. Elora restrains aganist from kissing him. Unfortantly they couldn't travel for the rest of the day. Silent's body still had to flush out that eletric attack and the two wolves needed some serious rest. 


	13. Part Tweleve

Aeris: Ryoko is going to have nothing to do with this chap.  
  
  
  
Disclimaer: I don't own FF7. Elora, Pink14, and Silent Moon belong to me. Kriel belongs to MercuryKnight.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
As soon as Elora had made sure Kriel was alright, she made her way over to Pink14. The wolf was still laying on the ground the ground from when she had woken up. Elora bends down and feels along her back.  
  
"How do you feel?" Elora asks.  
  
"I won't be able to walk properly for a while."  
  
Elora stands up and so does Pink. She whinces slightly, but stays up.  
  
"I can't heal it. But it will heal on it's own. Go into the forest and stay there until we come. If you run into any monsters, use Diamond Dust."  
  
Elora unhooks a red materia from her staff and puts it into Pink's headband. Pink nods and limps off. Elora watchs her until she gets out of sight. Elora then heads over to Red13. He didn't seem as bad as his sister, but the gash in his back had stained his fur a darker red becuase of the blood. Elora bends down and places her hand near his neck. She feels the blood from the wound and heals it. Red opens his eye nad looks at Elora. She smiles and stands up.  
  
"How do you feel?"  
  
"My neck and back hurts, but thankz."  
  
Elora nods, smiling again.  
  
"Follow your sister into the forest."  
  
Red nods and walks off. They had yet to have a formal introudction. Maybe that will come soon. Elora lifts her head up to see Kriel follow after Red. Elora smiles softly and a red materia in her staff glows. He had changed somehow. Elora could feel it everytime she was near him. The pretence of an Anicent was within him, but how? There were only two Anicents left, Elora was sure. Well maybe not. Thier enemy, Sephiroth had the familar enegry of an Anicent, and that was an even greater mystery. Elora couldn't think for very long as she went over to Silent Moon. A green crystal was glowing slightly, but the magic it was soppuse to be for wasn't helping. Elora puts her hand on Silent and she groans softly, letting the girl know she has at least halfway awake.  
  
"Your lucky. You only got halfway paraylzed, and it's soon going to be out of your system. Esuna is helping somewhat."  
  
Silent growls at that and looks at Elora. Elora puts her arms under her stomache and helps her stand. She lets go and Silent stays standing. Both start walking over to the forest.  
  
"Come on. It's going to take a while for it to competely disapper. Umm...here!"  
  
Elora puts something near Silent's mouth. The panther takes it off her hand and chews it. She cringes when she swallows it. She makes a face and keeps walking, limping badly.  
  
"That was awful! What was it?"  
  
"Hyper." Elora answers.  
  
"How is that going to help?"  
  
Both keep walking towards the forest.  
  
"To keep you from falling asleep until Esuna helps you fully recover."  
  
Silent nods and twitchs her tail. Elora starts fiddling with her staff, then takes out a yellow orb. It glows and Elora points the way. As they walk, Silent notices a haunting look in Elora's now purple eyes. Silent limps over and rubs aganist her arm. The girl smiles and pets her head.  
  
"It's amazing. When I first meet you, I wasn't in the least bit scared. Though I knew you could eat me. Now I'm terrified."  
  
Silent gazes up at her friend and realization of that haunted look hits her. A strong sense of something going to go wrong was around her. Silent twitches her tail and looks up at the sky. Elora starts rummaging in her backpack and hears a muffled clank-clank. Her new Fairy Tale staff had had a few less materia slots then her other one so she stored them in her backpack. That is expect for the white materia. It was still on the ribbon in her hair and was always glowing slightly. Elora pulls some food out and as they reach the camp, she walks over to Kriel and gives him some. He nods his thanks and his gaze shifts to her elbows. Elora stiffens, knowing he's going to ask about the faint scars.  
  
"What happened to your elbows?" He asks.  
  
"I got attacked by the dragon in the Temple of the Anicents. My mother died protecting me."  
  
Elora's eyes water up. Kriel stands up and hugs her. Elora's eyes change to blue as she starts crying. Elora then looks up at him as he whispers something to her. She closes her eyes and inches towards Kriel until his lips meet hers. When they break apart, Elora whirls and runs off. A couple hours later found Elora standing on a hill. Her eyes had dried up and were back to thier usual golden color. A determined look is set on her face. She turns around, but turns her head back as she hears somebody call out. She sees a whole gorup of people, more like an army. A few minutes later found Elora talking to Phire, Kriel's friend. She tells him to protect Kriel then turns and runs away as Kriel walks up. She didn't know how long it would be till she saw him again. Little did she know it wasn't going to be for a long while. The two wolves, the panther and the girl walk on until they come over a hill. Elora smiles and runs forward.  
  
"Aeris!"  
  
Aeris lifts her head up and smiles. She opens her arms and Elora runs into them, hugging her.  
  
"I'm so happy to see you!" Elora says, looking up at Aeris.  
  
Aeris smiles and ruffles Elora's hair.  
  
"Same to you."  
  
A couple hours later, close to dusk, found the whole group sitting around a campfire. It was finally time for formal introudctions. First off was Cloud Strife. He was the pericing blue eyed blonde haired male. His hair was spiky, he was wearing a purple outfit, and he carried a huge sword on his back, much like Elora did with her staff. Next was Tifa Lockehart. Her black hair fell midback and hair a red hairtie at the end. Her garnet red eyes are smiling at Elora. She's wearing a leather skin tight miniskirt and a midrift showing shirt. Elora returns her smile and looks over to the next person. Barret Wallace was his name. A dark skinned man. Elora tilts her head as she tried to sum up her thoughts about him. Nothing bad, but she thought he wasn't one you could become good friends with. Oh well, she would try. She shifts her gaze to the next person. The youngest member of the group, unincluding Elora and Silent. Yuffie Kusaitigri, ninja girl. Even after getting what she looked like from Silent, Elora was still shocked. She looked agile alright. Almost more so then Silent. Elora smiles at Yuffie and Yuffie returns it. Elora then switches over to the next person. Likely the oldest of the group, Cid Highwind. That was all Elora could tell about him, for he was mostly covered in shadows. Next was Vincent Valentine. He was the one that picked Elora by steel claws in the Forgotten Captial. Elora smiles at him and he nods in reponcse. Next was the red wolf, Red13, or Nanaki. He looked identical to his sister, expect for fur color and the roman numeral on the front leg. Elora was curious to know how both of them got it, but didn't ask. Next was Aeris, herself, Silent Moon, and Pink14. The last of the group was Cait Sith. A cat on top of a moogle. Elora thought it was very cute looking. Dusk falls and Elora looks over to Silent as she stands up and walks off. Elora excuses herself and walks after her. Elora stops when she sees Silent looking up at the moon. She smiles softly and sits down beside her. Both end up falling asleep there.  
  
*Dream*  
  
"Elora."  
  
"Mother?"  
  
The golden haired woman appears in front of Elora and the girl hugs her.  
  
"You've finally gotten back with the group. That's good. But be prepared tomarrow."  
  
Elora looks at her mother, her eye color shifting to green. Her mother smiles softly.  
  
"A battle will take place where you will lose somebody close to you, then lose the trust of a few others."  
  
Elora scuffs loudly. Three members of the group hadn't trusted her as of yet, so what would losing a couple more do? Her mother seemed to read her thoughts.  
  
"Elora, listen to me. This is very important. Just because the three do not trust you know, they will later. Remember that and keep your love for them."  
  
Elora's thoughts turn to the summon in her staff. The one with a bird. She hadn't figured out what it was yet, but she really wanted to. Her mother hugs her once more, then disappers, leaving Elora with a nightmare."  
  
*End dream. Start nightmare*  
  
A silouhette of a girl is seen as she stands in a doorway. In front of her is a monster that looks like a wall with arms and a head. The girl gasps outloud as the creature rams itself into a man. The man falls to the ground and the creature disappers. The girl runs forward and gets on her knees beside the man, sobbing loudly.  
  
"Elora. Don't be sad for me." The man says weakly.  
  
"Tell your mother I love her."  
  
"No, poppa. Come back with me. Momma will be so lonely without you."  
  
The man smiles at her and puts a hand up to her cheek.  
  
"You'll be there for her and so will Iifalna. Remember that."  
  
The girl nods and closes her eyes. The man smiles at her, then goes limp in her arms. The girl stands up blows a half hearted kiss, then turns and runs out of the temple. Tears blind her but she soon ends up facing a red dragon. This was the same one that had killed her mother and twice it had killed her. This time she was alone. It closes it's mouth on her arm and tries to pull her down. The girl whrils her staff around and tries to hit it's nose. When she succedds an icecle hits it's nose and it roars, letting her down. The girl turns and runs out of the room, holding her injured arm.  
  
*End nightmare* 


	14. Part Thirteen

Aeris: You can thank Ryoko for the ideas.  
  
Ryoko: Yea, I thought it was perfect for the timing.  
  
Disclimaer: I don't own FF7, but Elora, Silent Moon, and Pink14 belong to me.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
Elora awakes with a start. She had forgotten she had gotten attacked twice by that dragon. Now as dawn comes, she rubs her hands over her elbows. She looks over to Silent and finds her sleeping soundly. Elora smiles and makes her way back towards camp. She tilts her head as she sees four members missing. The two wolves, Aeris, and Tifa. Elora walks around, trying to find them. She finally does find them. All four are standing in another clearing, talking. Elora runs forward and jumps onto Tifa's back.  
  
"Hi!"  
  
Tifa looks back and smiles at Elora.  
  
"Hi Elora. How was your sleep?" She asks.  
  
"Great. Thanks. What'cha guys talking about?"  
  
Aeris speaks up.  
  
"What your next move was. You already know about how the group feels about you, right?"  
  
Elora nods and jumps down.  
  
"Three of them don't trust me. Cloud, Barret, and Vincent. Personally I can see why Vincent doesn't. He attacked me in the Forgotten Captial. But why Cloud and Barret?"  
  
Aeris laughs and answers her question.  
  
"Cloud isn't the easiest person to get along with. You need to prove your worth to Barret."  
  
Elora laughs and Pink14 comes over beside her. She rubs aganist Elora and the girl smiles. She pets the wolf on the head and all five walk back to camp. Elora sits down by Silent and looks over to the rest of the group. She stiffles her laughter and catchs a slight smirk on Silent's face. Elora looks over to Cloud and smiles. He has a serious case of bed hair. Leaves are sticking out from all angles and it looks a lot more spiker then it did the evening before. A couple hours pass and Silent is walking around with Elora on her back. She tells the panther of the preminition her mother told her about. Silent listens quietly until she finishes, then puts in her sense.  
  
"Elora, you have to take this seriously. Sephiorth could attack today. Anyone of us could get killed."  
  
"No! I don't want that! If he's after me, I'll give myself up!"  
  
"You can't!" Silent protests.  
  
Elora shakes her head and sighs softly.  
  
"If it's the only way to stop this, then I will."  
  
Elora slides off of Silent's back and runs off. Silent lets her go, but not without a soft sigh. Elora was one of the three youngest of the group, and was taking this pretty hard. Silent twitchs her tail and stalks back to the group. She hides within the shadows and listens quietly to the discussion. Things were being packed up and people were talking. Cloud, Tifa, Cid, and Aeris were the main ones in the discusiion. The two wolves were gone and the others of the group were just listening. Silent's ears twitch and she lets out a soft growl as she hears Cloud say a protest aganist Elora. Sure Silent knew Elora was right when she said Cloud didn't trust her, but this was too much. Silent turns and stalks off. She stops and jumps into a tree. She lays down and lets her feet dangle.  
  
"This is going to be a lot harder then I thought."  
  
Three more hours pass and Elora finally comes back. She stops under the tree Silent's in and tenses up. Silent, laying above her, notices it. She jumps down and growls loudly. Elora takes out her staff and holds it in front of her defensievly.  
  
"The time is now. Who will get killed?" Elora mumurs, then runs towards the camp.  
  
Silent follows behind her and both skid to a stop. The trees around the camp are in shambles and everyone is fighting aganist Sephiorth. Red13 and Cait Sith are uncoiuncess, while Tifa, Vincent, and Cid are laying stunned on the ground. A red materia in Elora's staff glows and everyone disappers. A woman appears and holds out her hand. Icicles appear on the ground then shatter, sending shards of ice flying at Sephiorth. However none hit as a huge burst of fire appears before him, melting the ice. He turns to Elora and smirks slightly. Silent runs out from behind Elora and swipes her claws in his direction. Her claws cut into the skin and as her hits connects, a green orb in her left front paw. Fire appears on her claws and make the wound slightly worse, before she gets thrown back. Cloud and Pink14 run up and attack. Sephiorth blocks Cloud's attack with his sword, but still gets hit by Pink's slash. He growls softly and a green orb in his sword hilt glows. A yellow sphere surronds the group as a colum of fire appears and expands. The barrier holds, but Elora's strength is getting zapped. The barrier falls and so does she. The fire disappers and Elora shakily lifts her head up. Her eyes widen as she sees Sephiorth advancing, not on her, but somebody else.  
  
"Aeris!" Elora screams.  
  
Her mother's words return to her. A battle will take place where you will lose somebody close to you, then lose the trust of a few others. No! Aeris was that one!  
  
"AERIS!" Elora screams again.  
  
Sephiorth smirks and brings his sword down. Elora closes her eyes and turns her head as she sword enters Aeris's back. She isn't quite sure what happened, but her sense materia tells her. Sephiorth's sword was so long and he had driven it so hard that it came through Aeris's stomache, killing her. As soon as the deed is gone, Sephiorth disappers. Elora opens her eyes, unshed tears in them. A couple hours pass, and Elora is standing in front of the group. She is bowing her head, keeping her eyes away from Cloud's pericing glare.  
  
"You should leave." He says.  
  
"Why?" Elora asks.  
  
"If it wasn't for you, this wouldn't have had happened." He answers.  
  
Elora doesn't answer. She knew it was true. If she had never left the City of the Anicents, this would have never happened. The group wouldn't be in dnager and Aeris would still be alive.  
  
"I'm sorry." Elora whispers, then turns and runs off into the night, hiding herself from everybody's site.  
  
Back with everybody else, the three animals catch a soft sigh from both Cloud and Tifa. Everybody turns and walks off, leaving them to think.  
  
"What will we do? Cloud shouldn't have accused her like that." Silent growls.  
  
"Did you see the look in her eyes? She believed it." Pink says.  
  
"We have to find her." Red says.  
  
Silent shakes her head.  
  
"No, we'll travel with Cloud and hope she'll come back on her own."  
  
The wolves nod and all three run to catch up with the group. 


	15. Part Fourteen

Ryoko: Aeris is now dead and Elora has ran away. What will happen next? Only I will tell.  
  
Aeris: She's been dying to wrtie this one since we first started this.  
  
Disclimaer: I don't own FF7, but Elora, Silent Moon, and Pink14 belong to me.  
  
  
  
A/N: Ryoko: Sorry for that little comment when the second month passes, but I couldn't resist.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
A month later  
  
  
  
A month passes since that time in the forest. Elora has not come back and a certain panther and wolf are running high on worries. Even so, they still hold onto the fact that she's alive and well. As noon comes, a cloacked figure is seen near the wall to a city. She watchs the gaurd in front of her and keeps the light from catching her eyes. When he looks away from her, she comes forward and knocks him out with a blow to the back of the neck with a staff.  
  
"They need somebody stronger out here." She mumurs, then proceeds to find the keys for the city.  
  
She finds them and unlocks the gate. She throws the keys down and walks inside. She pulls back her hood, revealing jet black hair and golden cat- like eyes. She had heard rumors and now wanted to see if they were true. She walks forward, looking over the city, keeping to the shadows and making sure she's not seen. She does good for an hour. As she walks, she freezes, feeling that somebody is watching her. She hears footsteps, then a hand clamps down over her mouth. She struggles, growling inwardly. She ends kicking the figure holding her and he lets go of her mouth.  
  
"Sleepel!"  
  
A green mist appears, washing over the two figures around her. The hold on her is slacked and she jumps away. As she looks, her eyes widen.  
  
"Phire? What are you doing here?" She asks herself.  
  
She pulls her hood back up and runs off. Two hours later find her outside the city, hood off again. Now in the bright light of the sun, you can see she has a scar under her left eye, on her forehead, and on her right cheek. She unties her cloak and sighs softly. her outfit consists of blue jeans and a white tanktop. Her hair reachs waist length and is competely jet black. On her wrist is a gold bracelet with a white crystal connecting it. The girl turns around, looking further down the hill she's on. Satisfed she sees nothing, she turns and runs off, putting her cloak back on in the process.  
  
A month later  
  
  
  
It was a dark and stormy night. Rain comes down, soaking everything. A figure stands up on a hill, looking at out over the landscape. The rain drips off of her cloak, but she gives no notice. A flash of lightning appears, illumanting her face briefly. Her gold eye are cold, hard, and determined. The light disappers and the girl's face is covered in darkness. She turns and walks off, a soft glow engulfing her left arm and back.  
  
"I've broken my promise. I'm sorry." She mumbles.  
  
The next day finds the same girl on top of a different hill. The storm had blown over and she was busy looking for something. Three chrouses of growls intrupt her thoughts. She turns around, pulling the cloak down further, so her eyes are hiden. She sees three animals growling at her and lifts her head, seeing more people looking at her. She tilts her head back, looking coldly at them. She turns and walks off, but one of the three animals jump in front of her. She steps back as the animal creeps towards her.  
  
"Who are you?" She asks.  
  
The girl doesn't answer. She turns her head back and glares at a blonde male with pericing eyes. She still hadn't forgiven him for that day.  
  
"Who are you?" The animal repeats.  
  
"I'm a friend." The girl answers.  
  
She looks back towards the animal and notices it's a panther with a mark on her forehead and a few scars along her body.  
  
"Silent? She looks exactly like her sister now." She mumbles quietly.  
  
The panther steps towards her and the girl steps back.  
  
"No need to get defensive. I'm not here to hurt anyone. Actually I was just leaving."  
  
The girl turns and walks off. This time the panther lets her go.  
  
"Sorry Silent. I can't come back yet."  
  
A week passes and the same girl is standing up in a tree. She's overlooking the ocean and is enjoying the smell of the ocean breeze. Her eyes are a sparkling brown to show her happiness, that is until she becomes aware of somebody watching her.  
  
"Oh boy."  
  
She turns her head and comes face to face with the face of a panther. The girl shows no shock, fear, or surprise.  
  
"This is the second time running into you. Tell me who you are." The panther says.  
  
"If nobody else is around, I'll tell."  
  
The panther looks back, then back to the girl. She gives a slight nod and the girl's eyes revert back to gold.  
  
"You know me very well, Silent Moon. Sister to Silent Luna of the Sleeping Forest."  
  
The panther looks shocked, then sniffs the girl's hair. She nuzzles aganist her and the girl smiles and hugs her.  
  
"I've missed you so much. I thought you had gotten yourself killed."  
  
The girl laughs and pulls back.  
  
"No. I just had to think for a while."  
  
"For two months?"  
  
The girl laughs again.  
  
"Yes."  
  
The girl jumps out of the tree and flips before landing on the ground. The panther jumps down beside her and the girl smiles.  
  
"So, what have you been up too, Elora?"  
  
The girl puts a finger up to her month and pulls her hood back up. Silent turns around and twitchs her tail in mild annoyance. The group comes into view and Silent stalks away, but in the way she walks, a pink wolf knows something's up. Both walk off and leave Elora to face Cloud, the one she never trusted and the one who had accused her of killing Aeris. Elora puts a hand on her hip and glares at Cloud from under her cloak.  
  
"Take off your hood." He says.  
  
"Give me a reason to." Elora says.  
  
"So I can see what you look like." He growls.  
  
Elora smirks and takes her hood off.  
  
"Happy?" She asks.  
  
He nods and looks her over. Elora turns her head and looks into the forest.  
  
"What is your name?" Cloud asks.  
  
"Day."  
  
Nobody notices that she has just used her last name. Nobody has even noticed it's her, expect for a red wolf. Elora gives no notice of him as she turns back to Cloud.  
  
"Can I leave now?"  
  
He nods and Elora turns and walks off.  
  
"What did I do to get on your bad side?"  
  
A yellow orb glows in her staff and she freezes. Five members of the group didn't trust her now. Cloud, Barret, and Vincent still didn't, but Cid and Cait Sith didn't know. Elora keeps walking, pulling her hood back on and vanshing into the forest. 


	16. Part Fifteen

Aeris: Here's the next chap.  
  
Disclimaer: I don't own FF7, but Elora, Pink14, and Silent Moon belong to me.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
Darkness falls over a town two days later. A girl is sitting in a tree, looking out over the land. She hears footsteps and turns. A red wolf is walking towards the tree she is in, but how he's walking the girl can tell he hasn't seen or smelled her. The girl turns back to look over the land. The moonlight casts it's glow on her, illumanting three scars on her right arm. The wolf looks up and sees her.  
  
"Elora!"  
  
"Quiet!"  
  
Elora jumps down and lands beside the wolf.  
  
"Where is everybody else?"  
  
"Asleep. My sister and Silent are the only ones still up."  
  
"I hope. Where are they Nanaki?"  
  
Nanaki points to the town with a paw. Elora looks and tilts her head.  
  
"What's it called?"  
  
"North Corel."  
  
Elora tilts her head. It looked rundown, but it was better then nothing. Just as she starts walking, a howl fills the air. Elora turns and looks over to Nanaki. It's not him. It sounds again and Elora's blood runs cold. That was Pink's howl. It was her mournful and painfilled cry. Elora had only heard her used that cry once before, when she had first seen her injured and on the brink of death.  
  
"Pink!" Elora cries, running into North Corel.  
  
Nanaki follows after her, afarid for his sister's life. As they run, Elora runs into something and falls hard on her back. She slowly gets up and groans loudly.  
  
"Silent! Pink!" Nanaki cries.  
  
Elora lifts her head up and growls loudly.  
  
"Leave them alone Sephiorth!"  
  
The silver haired man turns to glare at her with a cold gaze. Elora returns it and growls.  
  
"Your always hurting my friends to get to me! Take me and leave them alone!"  
  
Sephiorth smirks and a hole in the barrier appears. Elora walks through it. As Nanaki tries to come through, it closes on him, leaving him on the outside. Elora stands on the edge of the barrier as Sephiorth floats towards her. Silent and Pink slowly stand up, ignoring thier numerous injuries.  
  
"All you have to do is give me your white materia." Sephiorth says softly.  
  
The white crystal in Elora's bracelet glows and Elora puts her arm behind her back, hiding it under her cloak. She shakes her head and swipes her staff in his direction.  
  
"Take me." Elora says.  
  
"No. Elora..you can't." Silent rasps, breathing heavily from trying to stand.  
  
"I have to."  
  
"Fire2!"  
  
Elora lets out a startled scream as a colum of fire appears around her, burning her body. She cries out again, this time more loudly, as the flames get hotter.  
  
"Elora!"  
  
The flames disapper and Elora falls to her side, uncoiuncess. Silent runs forward and lunges herself at Sephiorth. She tears into his cheek before she gets thrown down. She lets out a chocked cry as her back comes in contact with the ground. Sephiorth smirks and disapppers. Elora follows soon afterward and the barrier disappers. Two chrouses of howls are heard as the two wolves try to call for thier friend.  
  
*Dream*  
  
"Elora. Wake up."  
  
"I can't. I'm too tired."  
  
"Elora. Open your eyes. You'll feel better."  
  
Elora finally obeys. She opens her eyes and is shocked to see emerald green eyes staring at her. She steps back and gasps as she gets a good look at the woman in front of her.  
  
"Aeris?"  
  
The woman nods, smiling. Elora hugs her around the waist, crying. Aeris smiles and returns it.  
  
"I'm so happy to see you!"  
  
Aeris laughs.  
  
"So I noticed. How have you been?"  
  
Elora tilts her head.  
  
"I could be better. I got burned protecting Silent and Pink."  
  
"Always one to help aren't you?" Aeris asks.  
  
Elora laughs and nods. Aeris hugs Elora again and bends down to look at her staright in the eye.  
  
"Elora. Listen to me. The finally battle with Sephiorth is coming up and you have to be ready. Holy will help you, but I don't know how or how much it can protect you. Alright?"  
  
Elora nods and looks at the materia in her bracelet. She had learned about the Holy materia durning the time she was alone, but it had almost costed her dearly. Elora looks up only to find Aeris has disappered.  
  
"Aeris? Aeris?!"  
  
Elora gasps loudly and grasps her right arm. She falls to her knees and looks at her hand.  
  
"Oh no."  
  
*End Dream. Start Nightmare*  
  
A girl is seen standing in the room where the dragon was that had caused her pain in the past, but now it wasn't doing anything to her. On the contray, she had made friends with it. She had found it she could understand it and used that to her advantage. It told her it was sorry for attacking her and causing her much pain. The girl said it was alright and then asked it something else. The dragon has responded it wasn't it's doing when it had killed her mother and that something was controlling. The girl nods and jumps onto the dragon's back.  
  
"What are you looking for?" The dragon asks.  
  
"Well, Dragy. I'm looking for something on this white crystal I have."  
  
Dragy was the only name she could come up with for the dragon, but it didn't seem to mind it. She looks over the writing on the walls and tilts her head.  
  
"It's called Holy, but that's all it says. I wonder..."  
  
She doesn't get any further. The temple starts rumbling and pieces of debris fall from the ceiling.  
  
"The temple is collapsing! We need to get out of here!"  
  
The girl nods and the dragon flies up. As it's flying out of the room, a big piece of debris hits the girl on the arm, causing her to fall off the dragon's back and onto the floor. She lays still, gasping for air. The dragon flies over and stands over her.  
  
"Get out of here." The girl whispers.  
  
"I've finally made a friend out of somebody. I won't leave you."  
  
"What about the Demon's Gate?"  
  
"He never liked me."  
  
The dragon takes the girl in it's talons and flies off. The girl's breath slowly turns back to normal and she starts regaining her senses. As they fly over the clock room, the girl looks up and gasps.  
  
"Dragy! Look out!"  
  
The dragon looks up, then roars as the debris hits it's back. It loses it's grip on the girl and she plummets to the ground far below. As she falls, she's aware of stones hitting her body. Scars are left and when the girl hits the ground, she falls uncoiuncess. By all means she should have been dead, but at the last instant, Dragy had put it's tail out to catch her. It had fallen faster then her and was still very injured. And it knows the girl can die. He moves over and stands over her as the temple collapses.  
  
*End Nightmare*  
  
Elora wakes up with a gasp. She grasps her right arm and groans softly. She looks up again and looks around. There was snow everywhere and she was freezing. She wraps her cloak closer around her and stands up.  
  
"Where am I? I'm so lost now."  
  
She starts stumbling along. Most of her body was numb so she figured she had been there a while. Two hours pass and Elora can go no further. She collapses to her knees, looking at the town in front of her. She then falls forward, fainting in the cold. The crystal in her bracelet glows and a whitish glow seems to surrond her. Three hours pass and Elora wakes up. She coughs a couple of times and shivers. She sits up and puts a hand to her forehead.  
  
"Oh man. I have a fever."  
  
"Are you awake?"  
  
Elora lifts her head up to see a young man step in. Elora nods and he walks over to her. He places a hand on her forehead and smiles.  
  
"Your fever's gone down. Lay back down and rest."  
  
"Where am I?" Elora mumbles as she lays down.  
  
"Icicle Inn. What were you doing laying in the snow a few feet away from town?"  
  
A coughing fit claims Elora before she answers. The man steps out for a few minutes, then comes back with something in his hand.  
  
"I got lost." Elora answers simply.  
  
"Take this."  
  
Elora looks slightly confused when a pill is giving to her, but she puts it in her mouth and swallows it. She makes a face and whinces. She smiles slightly, then falls asleep. A green orb in her staff glows slightly and so does the white crystal in her bracelet.  
  
"I have her, but her signal is weak. She could either be sick or uncoiuncess." A wolf announces, then walks on.  
  
Behind her, a panther and another wolf stand.  
  
"I can't believe I let her do that! What if she's killed?"  
  
"Stop blaming herself. She can't stand seeing her friends get hurt. Would you do the same for her or any one of us?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then stop."  
  
The panther and red wolf follow the pink one until they come to the ocean.  
  
"Now what?"  
  
"She's on the other side. We could always swim."  
  
The panther shivers and the pink wolf smiles.  
  
"Alright. Summon it is."  
  
A woman appears and gathers the three animals in her arms.  
  
"Thankz Diamond."  
  
The woman nods and contuies flying over the ocean. 


	17. Part Sixteen

Aeris: Ryoko's asleep. *She looks over at the blue haired girl asleep* How cute.  
  
Disclimaer: I don't own the places, chars, or enemies of FF7. Silent Moon, Pink14, and Elora belong to me. Kirel and Phire belong to MercuryKnight.  
  
  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
  
  
Elora stay's at the young man's house for a week. Durning which time she got to know a little more about him. His nickname was Mercury and he wouldn't tell her his real name. He was seventeen and really nice. He often took travelers in who either got lost, or passed out along the trail from the bitter cold. Elora had fallen under the second one, but in the week's time it took her for her to recover from her cold, she had made friends with most of the people around Icicle Inn. A couple people were stubborn and didn't want her friendship. She didn't mind, but one thing kept bugging her. Actually two things. Her white crystal was glowing almost contantly and she felt something bad was going to happen. Well, she was right. But something happened before then. It started one day while Elora was asleep on the couch Mercury had let her sleep on. She had flat out refused to take the bed for she was quite content with the couch. Her chood was on and she was sleeping soundly. On the outskirts of the town, two weary travelers are seen. It takes them an hour to get into the town. At this time, Elora had turned in her sleep, hiding her face. A couple hours later and the two travelers are knocking at Mercury's door. The brown haired male opens the door and lets the two in. Had Elora been awake, she would have automactily reconized them. But she was still sleeping peacefully on the couch. The two travelers ask Mercury for a place to stay for the night and he agrees. The two thank him and one of thier eyes stray to where Elora is sleeping. She had turned over again and now her arm was dangling over. A couple hours pass and Elora finally wakes up. She yawns and stretchs, still laying down.  
  
"Nice to see you awake, Day. How was your nap?" Mercury asks.  
  
"A lot better. Thanks for asking."  
  
Elora had never told him her real name, just he never told her his. Elora stands up and looks around.  
  
"I thought I heard voices while I was asleep. Was it my imganation?"  
  
Mercury laughs and shakes his head.  
  
"No. I have two travelers. Going up to the Crater."  
  
Elora perks up at this bit of news. That's exactly where she was heading. She had planned to go to the mountians anyway, so would end up there eventually.  
  
"Why were they going there?"  
  
"To fight somebody."  
  
Elora pales under her hood slightly.  
  
"Can I see them?"  
  
Mercury nods and opens the door to his room. She pokes her head in and sees somebody on the bed and somebody on the floor. She takes a closer look at the one on the bed and pales again.  
  
"Oh no. Thier going to fight him? They'll get killed."  
  
Elora shuts the door and leans with her back aganist it, looking down.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing."  
  
Another week passes. Mercury is kind enough to give the two travelers food, water, winter cloths to fight the storm, and pieces of advice. As they were about to leave, Elora steps up.  
  
"I'm coming with you."  
  
One of them looks at her in shock.  
  
"Your just a young girl. You'll get killed."  
  
"I'm fourteen and I can handle myself." Elora says icily.  
  
The other one looks at her, something in his eye.  
  
"What is your name?" The second one asks.  
  
"Day." Elora replies, not as icily.  
  
"Phire. I think we should let her come with us."  
  
"Fine Kirel. But if she gets killed it's your head."  
  
Elora smirks under her hood and sets out with them. She always kept quiet, not saying anything for fear of discovery. She had a feeling Kirel could tell her she really was. And Elora was sure there was Anicnet blood running through his veins. But she still was curious to how it had happened. Three days pass and Elora starts noticing the wind become colder as they enter a cave. She thought they were soppuse to get warmer, not colder. She's looking around at the walls when she gets roughly shoved aside. She hits the ground and slides.  
  
"Ow." She mumbles.  
  
She looks up to see Kirel and Phire fighting a two headed dragon. One head had fire attacks and one had ice. The look in it's eyes told Elora everything.  
  
"Syat out of this battle, Day!" Kirel yells.  
  
Elora nods and watchs the battle. It seems to last forever. Both of them were making scores, but the dragon seemed to dish them back three fold. Finally, Phire goes down. A red orb in Elora's staff glows brightly as her angier goes higher. Kirel holds his own for a while, but he too evenutally goes down. The orb glows more brightly as tears run down Elora's face.  
  
"NO! KIREL! PHIRE!"  
  
Elora's body glows as the glow from the orb surronds her. Her hood flies back and she holds out her arm. The orb appears and one of Elora's tears hit it as she brings it to her chest. It's glow intensifes and her, Kirel, and Phire disapper. A golden tear drop falls to the ground and ripples appear as it hits, then a ball of fire appears and expands. An orange bird appears and calls out. It spreads it's wings and a colum of fire appears around the dragon from it's wings. The bird, however, doesn't disapper when the dragon does. Elora, Kirel, and Phire reapper and the bird walks over to Kirel first. It puts it's head down near his face and a tear drop hits his head. His wounds heal and the the bird does the same to Phire. Elora smiles slightly, before collapsing to her side and passing out. The bird disappers and a closer look at Elora reveals her red tints are back. Her first time using a summon brought out extraoridnary powers within her, but how would that effect the battle aganist Sephiorth? Nobody knew. A couple hours later and Elora finally comes around. She slowly opens her eyes and the first thing she sees is a greenish hue of water. Elora lifts her head up and looks around. Kirel and Phire were no where in site. Elora jumps up. Had they gone on to the Northern Crater without her? No, they were still in there. Somewhere. She shakily stands up and walks on. She didn't want anybody fighting Sephiorth for it her he wanted. Nobody was going to get killed for her. Unknown to her, the group was watching thier battle with the two headed dragon and now were following Elora. As they keep walking, Elora stops and sighs.  
  
"I want to travel with Cloud and them again. Maybe I can convince him otherwise that I didn't kill Aeris."  
  
Elora looks up further into the caves and leans aganist the wall. She slowly sits down and sighs.  
  
"I'm too weak to keep on right now." Elora mumbles, slowly falling asleep.  
  
When she competely falls asleep, a woman with brown hair steps forward and picks her up. Her red eyes are soft and she's smiling.  
  
"Can she travel with us? She didn't do anything wrong."  
  
She looks back and see's somebody smiling at her. She smiles happily and walks back over to the group.  
  
"Thank you." She whispers.  
  
"Your welcome." Somebody answers her.  
  
They walk on. The woman holds Elora in her arms, protecting her when needed. And Elora sleeps on, oblivious to everything around her. 


	18. Part Seventeen

Ryoko: Aeris, PLEASE can I do this chapter? Aeris: Why? Ryoko: Please? Aeris: All right. Ryoko: Thank you!  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7 or the chars and locations used. I only own Elora, Silent Moon, and Pink14.  
  
Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to Mercuryknight who helped me come up with some of the ideas for this chap. Thanks!  
  
A Memory Never Erased  
  
Dream Sequence  
  
A young girl wakes up to darkness. She attempts to move, but is unable to and looks up. She feels something heavy on most of her body and again tries to move. This causes something else to stir. The girl looks up frightened, until she sees something gold and relaxes.  
  
"How are you doing?" The girl asks softly.  
  
"Badly. How about you?"  
  
"Various injuries and some bruises."  
  
The girl looks up at the dragon and tilts her head.  
  
"Dragy. Can you get us out of here?"  
  
The dragon nods and scratches at the roof of their rocky prisonment. The girl covers her head and waits. When sunlight streams down into the darkness she lifts her head up as the dragon lifts her up and out of the hole it made.  
  
"Dragy? Aren't you coming?" She asks, turning back to look at him.  
  
"No. I'm too weak." A weak voice answers her.  
  
"Dragy? Dragy!" The girl cries and kneels down beside the hole as she hears a heavy thud.  
  
The sunlight streams down on the red dragon and the girl can see it's broken wings and it's numerous injuries.  
  
"Dragy!"  
  
"Go on without me, Elora. I've only caused you grief since you meet me."  
  
"No! You made up for that! We're friends now!"  
  
The girl notices the dragon smile slightly before the look vanishes and the dragon goes limp. The girl crises his name again, tears streaming down her cheeks. The dragon vanishes slowly and the girl curls up into a ball, crying hard. A white crystal in her hair glows softly and the girl falls asleep.  
  
End Dream Sequence  
  
Dream Sequence  
  
A girl looks around her in the darkness. She sees nothing until she hears a giggle and turns around. She still sees nothing and runs off towards the voice, running over dead leaves and bones of various animals. After a while the giggle vanishes and the girl stops, looking confused.  
  
"Follow me, Elora." The wind seems to whisper to the five year old.  
  
The girl turns and runs off, knowing her way around expertly. She enters a building, goes down some stairs and enters this vast looking room. She runs down some more stairs and stops at some pillars. She looks across the gap and sees a young girl sitting on her knees on a pedestal. The girl jumps across the pillars and steps up onto the pedestal. She gets down beside the other girl and takes her hands within her own.  
  
"Aeris. What are you praying about?" The girl asks.  
  
The other girl opens emerald green eyes and smiles.  
  
"For everyone on this planet to stay safe, especially the little ones. Like you." She responds, ruffling the other girl's hair.  
  
She giggles and smiles happily.  
  
"Do you think it will come true?"  
  
The older girl nods.  
  
"I know it will. Come on, Elora. Let's take you back."  
  
"But Aeris, I want to pray with you!"  
  
The 13-year-old Aeris smiles slightly and closes her eyes. Elora's eyes turn a bright gold as she smiles happily. She closes her eyes and Aeris opens one eye to look at her. The five year old had no worries in her life and Aeris planned to keep it that way. She closes her eye again and both girl kneel and pray for 10 minutes. After the time is up, Aeris takes her hands out of Elora's, causing the girl to open her eyes. Aeris smiles and reaches back to her braid. She messes with the ribbon and finally brings her hand out in front of her and opens it.  
  
"Oh wow! What is that?!"  
  
"It's called a materia. And I want you to have it."  
  
Elora takes the white crystal from Aeris' hand and turns it over in her own hands. The crystal catches the light coming from the ceiling and glows.  
  
"Pretty. But why do you want me to have it?"  
  
"I feel you're destined to have it."  
  
Elora smiles, then reaches back and messes with the ribbon in her own hair. She finally gets the crystal to stay, then throws her arms around Aeris' neck, hugging her. Aeris hugs back and the two walk off.  
  
End Dream Sequence  
  
Elora doesn't wake up until night has fallen. When she does, she instantly notices she's in an unfamiliar embrace. Strong and very protective, yet feminine also. She opens her eyes and looks up from under the hood of her cloak. She sees Tifa holding her. The older girl hasn't noticed she's awake yet, but Elora gets the distinct feeling she should. So she reaches out with a hand and pokes Tifa. The girl jumps and drops her, but Elora had figured that would happen and maneuvers so she lands on her feet. She stands up and smiles.  
  
"Don't do that!"  
  
"Need to be listening so you'll know when I'm awake."  
  
Tifa smiles and Elora returns it, reaching up and pulling back her hood. She looks around and cringes inwardly, seeing Cloud. He however isn't glaring at her like he usually is. Elora looks around and waves to each one of the group individually, though she hugs Yuffie, Tifa, and Red13. At the end, she turns to Cloud with her head bowed.  
  
"Cloud." She starts.  
  
"Don't. I know what you're going to say, so don't. Because it's my fault."  
  
The entire group, including Elora, looks shocked. Cloud admitting when he was wrong? That was a first.  
  
"No. It was mine. I should have understood your feelings instead of running off."  
  
"You had your reasons, beside I shouldn't have accused you. Let's drop it and start over."  
  
Elora smiles happily and nods. Cloud smiles slightly and Elora looks even more happier, now that she's got him to smile, if only a little bit. The crystal in her bracelet glows softly in response and Elora looks around.  
  
"Anybody seen Silent or Pink yet?"  
  
Everybody shakes his or her head no and Elora looks depressed. A few hours pass and the group keeps traveling, Elora near the back with Cait Sith and Red13. As they walk, Red's ears perk and he looks up.  
  
"Hold on. I hear something."  
  
Elora listens closely and tilts her head. After a few minutes, two arguing voices can be heard. Elora smiles brightly and runs towards the voices.  
  
"Silent! Pink!"  
  
Five minutes pass and Elora comes back, with a panther and wolf in tow. All three look really happy and are chatting amongst themselves. Tifa smiles slightly, happy to see Elora with her friends again. The group continues on and the three chat, getting Red, Yuffie, and Tifa into it. They finally reach this huge room and everyone looks around. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, but Elora feels uneasy. Silent and Pink get close to her, growling. Nothing happens for a long time and everything seems fine, until Tifa gives a cry of surprise as Cloud goes flying. A fight soon starts between this hideous creature and the group. Elora gets ordered to stay back by Cloud and she listens, staying close to the wall. The battle isn't going that well. Almost everyone is down and the creature is advancing on Elora. Silent and Pink try to stop it, but they too go down. A red orb in Elora's staff glows brightly and she gets engulfed in it. She tries again to call the Phoenix and succeeds, but something goes wrong. As Elora puts her power into doing the summon, she suddenly feels cold. The orb's glow turns black but the summon still happen. The Phoenix appears and destroys the monster, and revives everyone who's unconscious. But it stays instead of disappearing again. Elora walks over to it slowly and notices its orange color has turned black, giving it a dark fire color of black and red. The bird turns to look at her and she recoils back, hating the look in its eyes. It screeches loudly and vanishes. Right after it does, a black beam of light comes from the ceiling and engulfs Elora in it. She gets lifted up and floats on her back. Nothing seems to happen for a while, but when Elora starts to think nothing is going to happen she suddenly lets out a piercing scream as she feels like her entire body is being ripped apart, slowly and very painfully. The pain then goes to her chest and she feels like she can't breathe. She gasps loudly as she struggles to draw a breath, but doesn't succeed and begins to feel light headed. She weakly opens her eyes as a new shout of concern reaches her and she sees the two people she abandoned further down in the caves. A small smile crosses her lips as she sees them alive, but then she screams again. The white crystal glows softly, but is rapidly put out by the black light and Elora screams even louder, feeling like her heart is being ripped out, and then crushed. Then she feels like she can't breathe again and finally goes limp, unable to draw a decent breath to get enough oxygen into her. Her crystal strengthens in glow, but is again put out by the light. She remembers and knows nothing of what happened, but in her dreams she is seen and told.  
  
Dream Sequence  
  
"You are a very lucky girl Elora." A soft female voice says.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
A woman dressed in white appears in front of her and smiles.  
  
"You are very lucky."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"You have so many people who care about you. Otherwise you'd be dead right now."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
The woman gestures and a window appears. Elora looks through it and finds it's showing the scene in the cave, right from when she went unconscious. The black light suddenly goes even darker and bloody marks start appearing all over Elora's body. Then a spear is seen hovering over Elora. It moves closer to her, but right before it pierces her heart, it gets stopped. But Elora still feels its heat and puts a hand over her heart as she watches.  
  
"What stopped it from killing me?" She asks softly.  
  
"The one who cares more about you then anyone else."  
  
Elora watches, confused. The window shows a lone figure standing only feet from the swirling blackness. Elora gasps as she recognizes the figure. It's Kriel! Kriel faced the darkness knowing who was in there only because his heart told him. An aura surrounded him at the moment seeing the spear fall towards her. A bright light flashed all around it tinged with red. An orb of white and red swirls hovers in front of Kriel, as he is floating off the ground. The light gets brighter and blocks any view of him. The light disappears and reveals an Angel like being. The wings out stretched about 20 feet in span and dual flaming scimitars appear at his sides. His wing gives off a low glow of white and his chest shows an orb of materia that is red with white swirls in it. His skin is of the high elven race, being fair and pale. His hand reaches within the darkness parting the black area and grabs the spear inches from her chest.  
  
"You will not hurt my love," He says as he throws the spear back up.  
  
Elora's eyes turn red as she watches all of this.  
  
"What kind of materia does he have?" She asks the woman beside her.  
  
"Its called Eden and it reacts strongly when Meteor and Holy are around."  
  
Elora looks down at her bracelet and then back up at the window as the light vanishes and Kriel holds Elora close in his arms, crying.  
  
"I can't go back. Not yet." Elora says quietly.  
  
She stands up and runs off. The woman follows closely behind and finally grabs onto her, stopping her.  
  
"What's wrong Elora?"  
  
"I want to see Aeris again."  
  
"All's you had to do was ask." A familiar voice says.  
  
Elora turns around as Aeris appears. Elora's eyes light up and turn gold as she runs over to the older girl and hugs her. Aeris smiles and returns it.  
  
"What was so important that you had to see me while your boyfriend is worried about you?"  
  
Elora blushes and glares up at Aeris in mock angrier.  
  
"He's not my boyfriend. And I want to know the real reason you gave me Holy."  
  
"I told you. I think you're destined to have it."  
  
"There's more to it. There has to be."  
  
Aeris looks over at the woman who does nothing to help her. Aeris smiles and gets down on her knees beside Elora.  
  
"Want to know the real reason? It's because I thought you could bring out the real powers of Holy. You were only four when I gave it to you, but I knew that you were special and look at you now. Friends with a bunch of mercenaries that are together for different reasons, and a wolf and a panther who wouldn't go near you until you proved yourself to them."  
  
Elora blushes slightly again and Aeris takes her hand. She moves her hand up so Elora can see the Holy materia. Elora tilts her head slightly.  
  
"Protect this, like you would protect your friends."  
  
Elora smiles and nods. Aeris smiles also and stands up.  
  
"Now go back to your friends. I'll see you again."  
  
Aeris and the woman vanish. Elora looks at the crystal and smiles as it glows. She closes her eyes and vanishes from her dreams. She slowly opens her eyes five minutes later and notices Kriel still holding her close and crying. She smiles slightly and brings her arm up. She wipes away a few of his tears and he looks at her in surprise.  
  
"I'm alive. No need to worry anymore." She says softly.  
  
She hasn't completely recovered from that pillar and is breathing a little hard still. Kriel hugs her tightly and Elora smiles slightly.  
  
"You were so pale when I freed you, I thought that."  
  
"I know, but I'm alive. Now let me get some rest."  
  
He smiles and stands up, picking Elora up as he does so. The young girl ends up falling asleep, resting her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat. 


	19. Part Eighteen

I finally figured out what I wanted to do with this story.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 Belongs to Square. Elora belongs to me. Kriel belongs to MercuryKnight.

A Memory Never Erased

The last few months of her life never happened. Or that's what she's been lead to believe. She honestly didn't remember a thing about what had happened. She just knew that it had changed her. She stands in the middle of the alter in the Forgotten Capital with head bowed and eyes closed. She couldn't help feeling she had lost something very dear to her. Golden eyes slowly open and her gaze fixes upon the white feathers of the wings she now possesses. Day after day she would stand at the alter, just stand there, and listen to the now quiet murmur of the Planet. It was slowly killing her, despite what she's become, but that's what she wants. No memory and the feeling of loss has consumed her to the point she wants to end it all but she goes on living, protecting the sacred grounds of which she was born. She finally leaves the alter and goes outside of the entrance. She gently kneels by the lake side and looks at her reflection. Gold eyes fade until their pitch black and her black hair losses its red tints. The wings on her back move a bit as she watches her reflection, noticing how haggard her appearance has become and how thin she looks. Out of no where, she slaps the water and looks away, curling up in a tight ball and wrapping her wings around herself.

"What happened to me! Why do I feel like this!" She cries to no one, tears streaming heavily down her cheeks.

She cries by the lake side, her tears causing her dark eyes to turn red and her body to shake with her unrestrained sadness. For weeks she had stood at the alter, trying to piece together her life. All's she knew was her name, Elora, and that she had lived in the city all of her life. She also remembered most of her life until she almost turned 14. After that it's a blank and she cries harder, feeling her heart breaking. Eventually, she ends up crying herself to sleep, still curled up as tight as she can be.

Dream

"Please! I beg of you! Kill me! I don't want to live anymore!" Her mind screams in agony to the darkness.

"You are the last...Do you wish to end our bloodline?" A unknown voice asks.

"No! Why is it I feel so sad when I can't remember what happened!" She cries.

A gentle hand is placed on her forehead and she looks up to the gold eyes that smile gently down on her.

"Are you ready for this, Elora?" She is asked.

"Please! If I cry myself to sleep every night, thinking I've lost someone I love, than I have to be ready!"

The smile placed on her is bittersweet at most and before she knows it she's shown the final battle.

Flashback

She remembered it...She remembered how tense everyone was and how scared she felt...Even being near Kriel hadn't stopped that fear from eating at her. She remembered trying to help as best as she could with magic and summons, trying to contribute to the cause of saving this Planet from destruction. But as the battle continued, one by one her friends had been struck down. Her determination had given way to a terror and sadness so keen, when Kriel had got struck down, she had went insane with grief. She had attacked for all she was worth. But it hadn't helped. Sephiorth had struck her down as well. She had landed next to Kriel's blood soaked body and there she had stayed as the battle continued, holding his cold hand, as her blood slowly drained from the slash down her chest. Bit by bit her vision had dimmed until the last thing she saw before she blacked out was Kriel's still face.

End Flashback

"How did I survive?" She questions.

"Holy saved you...It knew it was in the hands of a young child and it didn't want to see you die...So it saved you..."

"But why not him! I love him! I'd rather die than live as I do now!"

The gold eyes smile gently to her again and her wings rustle a bit as she shakes until that gaze.

"Elora...You are a guardian angel now...You protect the city now...You just have to wish it and he will come to you..."

"But he's a dark elf...A drow..."

Again the gentle smile and again that shiver courses through her body.

"Has that ever stopped you from protecting or helping him?"

"No!"

"Than it will not stop you from getting your wish..."

Again her wings rustle as she shakes, this time in barely contained joy. Her love might return to her! The thought sent a thrill of exuberance through her that's only quenched by the thought of the others whose memories had returned to her.

"What of...?" She begins.

"I'm sorry...They can't return...She can't return..."

Now she shakes again, this time in sadness. The gold eyes smile gently again as she slowly looks up again.

"Do not worry. She will still be here to visit you."

"As I've come now."

She turns in shock, her wings flapping in her sudden turn as her black eyes land on vibrant emerald green eyes.

"Your here!"

"And this is where I'll stay. All you have to do is come find me."

She smiles brightly, looking between them before her wings rustle again.

"Go...Bring him back..."

End Dream

She wakes up with a loud gasp, slowly looking around her in confusion before remembering her dream. She could revive Kriel! She gets up and runs towards the Forgotten Capital. Down the stairs and across the pillars until she stands at the alter as she has been for weeks. She had a feeling this would not be easy or fun, but she would give up everything, including her life, to see Kriel again. She closes her eyes and concentrates on the new power stirring within her. It questions her, unsure of what she wants, and she answers, with a picture in her mind that she wants to revive him. The magic shoots through her, happy to answer but as the revival starts, execrating pain shoots through her body. She doubles over, her arms wrapping around her stomach but still she concentrates on the magic going through her.

"I'd give anything...Even my life...If it meant getting him back..." She whispers.

Little did she know what she was doing. Hearing that, the magic doubles in effort and she collapses to her knees with a soundless cry. The pure white wings on her back suddenly burst off and as the white feathers float around, she looks up through rapidly dimming vision to see someone standing at the entrance to the alter. The magic settles and so does she. She falls forward, passing out as the last of the magic drains from her body, leaving her weak and drained. For a month she stays unconscious, her mind in a settle coma while her body was healing from the wayward magic she used. She was never told she'd give up her status as guardian to revive him. But than, she had said she'd give up anything and she had meant it. As the month draws to a close, her comatose mind slowly exits that state, tentative and unsure. But before long, she's settled back into the realm of dreams. A dangerous place for her to be for her dreams can turn into vivid nightmares of time long past. As it does now. She dreams about the final battle with her enemy that had killed those she cared for. In her dream she sees them, one by one get struck down, slowly dying as their life's blood drains from their body. She remembers the grief that had driven her to attack without thought. It had consumed her in a matter of seconds after she had seen him fall without a sound. She remembers the pain she felt when her chest had been cut open, exposing her heart, ribs and lungs as her blood poured out of her. She dreams of slowly, painfully, moving her head to look at her love. Unmoving, his once beautiful eyes, now closed in death's embrace. She had slowly moved her hand until she had enclosed his and there she had died, a look of anguish on her face that wasn't eased as death's cold hands came to take her.

She wakes with a sharp gasp, sitting up and curling up a bit defensively, not quite remembering where she is or what happened. As her panicked state gives way to calm, she notices its night. The full moon sends a gentle glow throughout the city, shimmering faintly along the animal bones that lay around and the lake she sees in the distance through the window next to her bed. Out of no where she yawns loudly and rubs at her, once again, gold eyes before looking around her. Something was very off. No longer did she feel the erratic magic that had once coursed through her veins. No longer did large white wings brush up against her cheek whenever she sat up. As she looks outside to the full moon, a sudden sense goes through her head. Someone was in the city. Someone was intruding on this sacred grounds. She had always been teased by her protective nature by two that had been killed in that battle, but she didn't care. No one was to walk this grounds, not while she still drew breathe. She gets up from the bed and walks through the city and down to the Forgotten Capital, walking slowly down the stairs. As she walks, she can see someone kneeling at the alter. From how far away she is, it's impossible to tell features but the anger grows within her. Who dare intrude where innocent blood had almost been split? Who dare intrude on her people's holy ground? And yet...she doesn't quicken her pace. Her bare feet make no noise against the crystalline stairs. No wind disturbs the harmony of the Capital. Peaceful, as it always has been, even when the others came. Slowly she walks down the stairs until she finally reaches the pillars. Only a short distance away from the alter, she still cannot see who is kneeling there. Silently, she jumps across the pillars until she stands at the alter entrance. A beam of light shines down and illuminates the kneeling figure. Her breathe catches in her throat, seeing the greenish-blue hair shimmer faintly. No one she had known, throughout her life, had that colored hair, no one but one person.

"No..." She whispers.

The head jerks up to her whisper before slowly standing up. Standing a good head and shoulder length taller than her, but strangely she feels no fear or intimidation. Dressed in a simple outfit, more similar to this world than what he wore previously, he slowly turns to face her. Lavender eyes sparkle a bit in the light and she steps back in shock, her fingers from her left hand covering her mouth as she gasps.

"Kriel...?" She whispers, afraid to break whatever spell has come over her.

A little smile lights the dark face she had quickly become used to seeing.

"I'm so happy to see you've awaken, Elora..."

The charming voice she remembered so well. Calming her and her companions, yelling in anger when she was hurt...Tears come to her now blue eyes and fall slowly down her cheeks.

"I succeeded than...You're not just a fragment of my imagination?" She questions, taking a step forward.

Without a word he walks closer to her and gently touches a hand to her cheek. Warmth spreads through her from his touch and the tears come harder.

"I saw you die...I watched you bleed...You never once got up..." She whispers, lowering her head as tears go down her cheeks.

She starts violently as she's embraced, his arms unknowingly circling around the large wounds on her back that she's just now noticed.

"I'm here...No need to cry Elora...I will always be here..."

His hand gently traces the large scar on her chest after he lets her go, than the wounds on her back. The warmth spreads further and she smiles, her eyes turning back to gold, as she feels whole again. She knew the others would never come again, for no one had survived. They had succeeded but with a terrible price. But she knew, once she closed her eyes, she could visit them. And talk to them in what her people considered the Promised Land. They were there, with her. She had allowed them in, and it's where they would go when their turn came. Without warning, she rises on her tipytoes and kisses Kriel on the lips. Shock is soon replaced with love at her own boldness and he returns her kiss just as gently. She moves back and smiles gently before gently taking a hold of his hand. Across the pillars and up the stairs to the entrance of the Forgotten Capital. The sun has just begun to rise and she smiles up at her love who gently returns the smile.

"Until the day we die...This will be our home. This is where we will spend our days, guarding this sacred ground and keeping it safe from those who wish to cause harm to it." She says with a faint tone of questioning in her voice, unsure if he wishes to stay here.

He smiles at her and nods, looking across the lake.

"Yes...We will stay to protect it...Together...And with our love..." He answers.

Both look out across the lake as it shines with the coming of the sun. She hears a little laugh on the winds and smiles brightly, curling her fingers in his hand. Neither says a word as they watch the sun rise over the City; brighten the sky from its passage of night.

"This is where I'll stay...So all you have to do is come find me..." A faint voice whispers.

She smiles brightly again, nodding in agreement.

"And this is where I'll stay. Where we both will stay...So you can find us." She answers.

He says not a word, knowing its private as he smiles at her. She smiles back and leads him further into the City, laughing out loud the whole way.


End file.
